CHAPTER IX 



REPTItlAN LIVERIES 



If the records in regard to the coloration of young reptiles 

 be few in number, they lack nothing in point of interest ; 

 and when surveyed as a whole, and measured by the standard 

 of interpretation adopted in the case of the mammals and 

 birds, they wiU be found to present some very puzzling 

 and contradictory features. But in making such com- 

 parisons it must not be forgotten that the reptiles are a 

 far older group than either, and in consequence we should 

 expect to find a greater elimination of such superficial 

 ancestral characters as coloration, especially when one 

 remembers the important place this often plays in the 

 struggle for existence. 



We have already pointed out the fact that longitudinal 

 stripes are most commonly met with in the young of the 

 more primitive types, that is to say, in those types which 

 have retained the greatest number of ancestral features ; 

 and this rule is again illustrated in the case of the reptiles, 

 for we find that the young tuatara " lizard," the most 

 archaic member of the living Reptilia, is marked with 

 longitudinal bands of grey and white, and more or fewer 

 indistinct transverse bars of the same hues. These are 

 soon lost, however, the adult being of a uniform greenish 

 colour, or occasionally spotted, the spots representing the 

 last traces of the earlier stripes. Such spotted adults, 

 then, are probably not quite mature, 



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