COLOURS AND COLORATION 35 



To-day the lion is a dweller in the open, the tiger in dense 

 jungles, where his stripes, harmonising with the tall reed 

 stems, make him invisible, and so the more able to stalk 

 his prey without being seen. 



Whether, from the very dawn of their development, 

 the coloration of mammals was relieved by a pattern of 

 some sort, or whether they slowly evolved, first a striped 

 and then a spotted livery, in accordance with the needs 

 of their environment, or not, we cannot say. But it is 

 certain that a considerable number of mammalia at the 

 present day seem to do best with a coat devoid of any 

 distinctive markings at all. The lion affords a striking 

 case in point. But in this species the tell-tale spots 

 survive in the young. In the majority of cases, however, 

 even these have vanished, and from birth to old age 

 the coat is " self-coloured." 



In most cases of this kind the young do not differ 

 appreciably, if at all, from their parents. But we find 

 striking exceptions to this rule. Thus, fox cubs are 

 of a uniform smoke-grey colour, contrasting strongly 

 therein with their parents. The young of certain seals, 

 however, present some puzzling features. In the case 

 of the common seal the " pup " is of a uniform yellowish 

 white colour but the adult is spotted ; while in the Harp 

 seal {Phoca grcenlandica) the young is white, the adult 

 ornamented by a long bow-shaped belt of dark brown 

 on either side of the body, the ends of the bow meeting 

 over the back to enclose a space. Now, here — and the 

 seals furnish yet other similar cases — the normal condi- 

 tions are reversed, for where a " self-coloured " stage is 

 contrasted with one displaying a marked pattern, one 

 has come to expect the young to display the pattern, the 

 adult the patternless condition. 



