PROTECTIVE RESEMBLANCES, AND MIMICRY 993 
are explained by some naturalists the brilliant plumage of 
the male birds, as in the case of the bird-of-paradise and 
the pheasants. Or they may serve for recognition charac- 
ters, enabling the individuals of a band of animals readily 
to recognize their companions ; the conspicuous whiteness 
of the short tail of the antelopes and cotton-tail rabbits, 
the black tail of the black-tail deer, and the white tail- 
feathers of the meadow-lark, are explained by many natu- 
ralists on this ground. Recognition marks of this type 
are especially numerous among the birds, hardly a species 
being without one or more of them, if their meaning is cor- 
rectly interpreted. The white color of arctic animals may 
be useful not alone in rendering them inconspicuous, but 
may serve also a direct physiological function in preventing 
the loss of heat from the body by radiation. And the dark 
colors of animals may be of value to them in absorbing heat 
rays and thus helping them to keep warm. But “by far 
the most widespread use of color is to assist an animal in 
escaping from its enemies or in capturing its prey.” 
The colors of an animal may indeed not be useful to 
it at all. Many color patterns exist on present-day birds 
simply because, preserved by heredity, they are handed 
down by their ancestors, to whom, under different condi- 
tions of life, they may have been of direct use. For the 
most part, however, we can look on the varied colors and 
the striking patterns exhibited by animals as being in some 
way or another of real use and value. We can enjoy the 
exquisite coloration of the wings of a butterfly none the 
less, however, because we know that these beautiful colors 
and their arrangement tend to preserve the life of the 
dainty creature, and have been produced by the operation 
of fixed laws of Nature working through the ages. 
