Correlation 
colour and badness of temper. It is probably 
in part owing to a recognition of this that the 
cobras ordinarily seen in the hands of the so- 
called snake charmers are of a very light colour, 
although the choice may also be to some extent of 
esthetic origin, seeing that the paler varieties are 
specially ornamental, due to the brilliancy of their 
markings and the great development of their 
hoods.” It would thus appear that there is also 
a correlation between the colour of the cobra and 
the size of its hood. 
Hesketh Pritchard informs us, in Through the 
ffeart of Patagonia, that the Gauchos assert that 
a ‘‘ picaso ” colt—that is to say, a black one with 
white points—is the reverse of docile. Similarly, 
black mice are said to be very hard to tame. 
We have already called attention to the im- 
portance of courage and the power of resisting 
the rigours of climate in the struggle for exist- 
ence. It is apparently because black is so fre- 
quently correlated with courage that it is seen 
comparatively often in nature, in spite of the fact 
that it is a very bad colour as regards protection 
from enemies. Those birds and beasts which are 
black are usually thriving species. The domi- 
nance of the crow tribe is a case in point. Crows, 
it is true, are not really courageous, but they are 
dangerous owing to their gregarious habits, and 
are dreaded by other creatures on account of 
their power of combination. In Bzrds of the 
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