MAMMALS— SPOTS AND STRIPES. 541 



"by any other quadruped." But as throughout the whole group 

 of the EquidsB the sexes are identical in color, we have here no 

 evidence of sexual selection. Nevertheless he who attributes the 

 white and dark vertical stripes on the flanks of various antelopes 

 to this process, will probably extend the same view to the Royal 

 Tiger and beautiful Zebra. 



We have seen in a former chapter that when young animals 

 belonging to any class follow nearly the same habits of life as 

 their parents, and yet are colored in a different manner, it may 

 be inferred that they have retained the coloring of some ancient 

 and extinct progenitor. In the family of pigs, and in the tapirs, 

 the young are marked with longitudinal stripes, and thus differ 

 from all the existing adult species in these two groups. With 

 many kinds of deer the young are marked with elegant white 

 spots, of which their parents exhibit not a trace. A graduated 

 series can be followed from the axis deer, both sexes of which at 

 all ages and during all seasons are beautifully spotted (the male 

 being rather more strongly colored than the female), to species 

 in which neither the old nor the young are spotted. I will specify 

 some of the steps in this series. The Mantchurian deer (Cervus 

 mantchuricus) is spotted during the whole year, but, as I have 

 seen in the Zoological Gardens, the spots are much plainer during 

 the summer, when the general color of the coat is lighter, than 

 during the winter, when the general color is darker and the horns 

 are fully developed. In the hog-deer (Hyelaphus porcinus) the 

 spots are extremely conspicuous during the summer when the 

 coat is reddish-brown, but quite disappear during the winter 

 when the coat is brown." In both these species the young are 

 spotted. In the Virginian deer the young are likewise spotted, 

 and about five per cent, of the adult animals living in Judge 

 Caton's park, as I am informed by him, temporarily exhibit at the 

 period when the red summer coat is being replaced by the bluish 

 winter coat, a row of spots on each flank, which are always the 

 same in number, though very variable in distinctness. From this 

 condition there is but a very small step to the complete absence 

 of spots in the adults at all seasons; and, lastly, to their absence 

 at all ages and seasons, as occurs with certain species. From the 

 existence of this perfect series, and more especially from the 

 fawns of so many species being spotted, we may conclude that the 

 now living members of the deer family are the descendants of 

 some ancient species which, like the axis deer, was spotted at all 

 ages and seasons. A still more ancient progenitor probably some- 



*i Dr. Gray, 'Gleanings from the Menagerie of Knowsley," p. 64. Mr. 

 Blyth, in speaking ('Land and Water,' 1869, p. 42) of the hog-deer of 

 Ceylon, says it is more brightly spotted with white than the common 

 hog-deer, at the season when it renews its horns. 



