COLOURS AND COLORATION 39 



tages. Sooner or later, we may suppose, the tendency to 

 produce spots instead of stripes becomes a valuable one, 

 and lo ! in due time the stripes are broken up and spots 

 take their place, as in the case of deer. Some species 

 have both adults and young spotted, the year round ; in 

 some the young, and the adults during a part of the 

 year, are spotted : in- others, as in red-deer, the young 

 only are spotted. Finally, as in the case of reindeer 

 for instance, the spots have vanished completely from 

 the life-history : though it is quite possible that traces 

 might be found in the embryo just before birth. 



The tendency has been for new characters to make 

 their first appearance in the adult male. By the time 

 they have attained something like perfection in him they 

 begin to be transmitted to the female, and in course of 

 time to the offspring, until all three have the same livery. 



