The Making of Species 
Many exceedingly conspicuous birds—as, for 
example all the crow-tribe, the egrets, the 
kingfishers—flourish in spite of their showy 
plumage. Such creatures, while scarcely consti- 
tuting a valid objection to the theory of pro- 
tective colouration, serve to show that protective 
colouring is not a necessity. An animal other- 
wise able to take care of itself can afford to 
dispense with cryptic colouration. ‘An ounce 
of good solid pugnacity is a more effective 
weapon in the struggle for existence than many 
pounds of protective colouration.” 
There used to live in the gardens of the Zoo- 
logical Society of London a black cat belonging 
to the manager of one of the restaurants. This 
animal used to catch birds on the lawn. We 
believe that not even Mr Thayer will maintain 
that a black cat is cryptically coloured when 
stalking on a well-watered lawn! Nevertheless 
the nigritude of that cat did not prevent it 
securing a meal. 
The case of birds’ eggs furnish an excellent 
example of the lengths to which Wallace and his 
followers have pushed the theory of protective 
colouration. 
D. Dewar maintains that it is possible to 
divide birds’ eggs that are coloured, as opposed 
to those that are white, into two classes—those 
which are protectively coloured and those which 
are not. The former class includes all those 
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