Colour Mutations 
creatures are less conspicuous than white ones. 
As examples of black mutations which occur in 
Mature, we may cite black leopards, water 
rats, squirrels, foxes, barking deer (Cervulus 
muntjac), hawk-eagles, harriers, peppered moth 
(Amphidasys betularia), etc. 
That many black species have arisen as sudden 
mutations from lighter-coloured animals seems 
tolerably certain from the facts that in Malacca 
the black leopard forms a local race; that some 
of the Gibbon apes are as often black as light 
coloured ; that the American black bear is some- 
times brown, while the other bears, when not 
brown, are almost invariably black. 
Not uncommon, although rarer than black or 
melanistic forms, are reddish or chestnut varieties. 
These occur both among tame and wild animals. 
Among domesticated creatures, sandy cats, ‘‘red” 
pigeons, buff fowls, chestnut horses, red guinea 
pigs afford examples of this mutation. Among 
wild animals many of the species of squirrel, not 
naturally red, produce red mutations ; and some of 
the grey owls—as, for example, the Indian race 
of the Scops (Scops gzu)—throw off a red or 
chestnut form. As everyone knows, some species 
are normally red. 
Green or olive species not unfrequently throw 
off yellow mutations. As examples of these we 
may cite yellow canaries, yellow budgerigars 
(Melopsittacus undulatus), goldfish, golden tench, 
Iol 
