THE WAY OF THE WILD 75 
most inconspicuous in the greatest variety of surroundings.! 
Thus deer and moose feed in safety both in winter and summer 
where they would be in far more danger if their coats were red 
or black; indeed, adaptation has gone so far in these animals 
that the coat is lighter in winter than in summer, and thus 
blends still better as the foliage gives place to snow, 
The most highly colored birds are those that live among the 
foliage and flowers of the tropics. Snakes and lizards closely 
imitate the dull colors of the grounds they infest, and while 
the resemblance is not close, it is more effective than would at 
first seem possible. Many insects are as green as the leaves 
they sit upon, often for no other reason than that the green 
chlorophyll from the leaves they have eaten shows through 
the thin texture of their bodies. Others, like these shown in 
Fig. 10, are variously colored in close resemblance to their most 
frequent habitat. 
Mimicry. Closely akin to protective coloring is mimicry ; 
indeed, mimicry is the idea of protection carried a step further, 
in which the resemblance is not so much to the background as 
to some other specific object. 
On the border line of the two is the peculiar marking of the 
zebra, the tiger, and the leopard, which at first thought would 
seem to make them conspicuous. However, the facts are that 
such a striped or spotted animal lies well hidden in the thicket 
or the jungle, for the peculiar markings and outlines of his body 
are not quickly distinguishable from the lights and shadows 
which the sunshine casts about him. 
True mimicry, however, is more exact, and some cases are 
quite remarkable. Of all created things butterflies are able to 
show the best cases of mimicry from their remarkable colora- 
tion and from the general resemblance of the structure of their 
wings to that of leaves. For an example of color mimicry refer 
1 This is the reason why the United States has abandoned the blue uni 
form and the British the red for the dirty-looking but really serviceable and 
inconspicuous khaki. 
