i 7 8 ANIMAL LIFE 



skate and turbot, the predaceous and the preyed upon, 

 have adopted the livery and tone of the sand. Nor 

 when we leave the sea and follow the rivers do we fail 

 to discover some instances of a similar agreement 

 between the colour of fresh-water animals and their 

 surroundings. In particular the trout, like all fish 

 of sedentary habits, exhibits this sympathetic relation, 

 and becomes light in chalky streams or limestone rivers 

 and dark on a peat bottom or in deep holes. 



But that abundance of invisible, and yet boldly 

 coloured animals which the sea possesses is notably 

 absent from fresh water, and if we pass from fresh 

 water to the land we find but few instances, except 

 amongst birds and insects, of that intense colour 

 sympathy which characterises the shore. 



Of general unobtrusiveness there is plenty, for 

 shade subdues all colour to itself, and the motley of the 

 ground makes any small object inconspicuous, as a 

 variegated carpet makes a better hiding-place than a 

 self-coloured one. But of that careful rendering of 

 the habitual resting-place which Hippolylc has per- 

 fected there are far fewer instances as we pass from 

 the sea to the land, and it is only where conditions of 

 a very decisive colour dominate a countryside that we 

 find anything comparable with the clear mark of 

 sandy ground or the bold yet cryptic motley of the 

 rocky coast. 



In our own country this can hardly be said to occur, 

 and we turn to the white Arctic regions, the brown 

 deserts, and green tropics to inquire whether bold 



