TOO THE DESCENT OF MAN 



Equal Transmission of Ornamental Chavaetera to Both 

 Sexes. — With many birds, ornaments, which analogy leads 

 us to believe were primarily acquired by the males, have 

 been transmitted equally, or almost equally, to both sexes; 

 and we may now inquire how far this view applies to mam- 

 mals. "With a considerable number of species, especially 

 of the smaller kinds, both sexes have been colored, inde- 

 pendently of sexual selection, for the sake of protection; 

 but not, as far as I can judge, in so many cases, nor in so 

 striking a manner, as in most of the lower classes. Audu- 

 bon remarks that he often mistook the muskrat," while 

 sitting on the banks of a muddy stream, for a clod of earth, 

 so complete was the resemblance. The hare on her form is 

 a familiar instance of concealment through color; yet this 

 principle partly fails in a closely allied species, the rabbit, 

 for when running to its burrow it is made conspicuous to 

 the sportsman, and no doubt to all beasts of prey, by its 

 upturned white tail. No one doubts that the quadrupeds 

 inhabiting snow-clad regions have been rendered white to 

 protect them from their enemies, or to favor their stealing 

 on their prey. In regions where snow never lies for long a 

 white coat would be injurious; consequently, species of this 

 color are extremely rare in the hotter parts of the world. It 

 deserves notice that many quadrupeds inhabiting moderately 

 cold regions, although they do not assume a white winter 

 dress, become paler during this season ; and this apparently 

 is the direct result of the conditions to which they have long 

 been exposed. Pallas" states that in Siberia a change of 

 this nature occurs with the wolf, two species of Mustela, 

 the domestic horse, the Equtis hemionus, the domestic cow, 

 two species of antelopes, the musk-deer, the roe, elk and 

 reindeer. The roe, for instance, has a red summer and a 

 grayish-white winter coat; and the latter may perhaps serve 



^ Fiber zibethicus, Audubon and Bachman, "The Quadrupeds of N. 

 America," 1846, p. 109. 



38 "Novae species Quadrupedum e Glirium ordine," 1718, p. 1. What I 

 have called the roe is the Ca;preolus sibiricus tubecaudatus of Pallas, 



