THE DRAMA OF LIFE 



39 



a matter of great advantage that yellow and black salaman- 

 ders should lose their yellowness in a black-soiled coun- 

 try, it is plain that the non-susceptible types would be 

 ehminated, while the susceptible types would survive and 

 multiply after their kind. 



We are accustomed to think of the chameleon's colouj- 

 change in connexion with protection, but it seems also 

 to have a distinctly repellent value. Mr. Cyril Crossland 

 has given an animated 

 account of a chameleon 

 frightening off a fox 

 terrier which attacked 

 it. At first the reptile 

 tried to run away, but 

 that is not its strong 

 point ! ' In a few 

 seconds the impossi- 

 bihty of escape seemed 

 to reach the animal's 

 brain, when it at once 

 turned round and 

 opened its great pink 

 mouth in the face of 

 the advancing foe, at 

 the same time rapidly 

 changing colour, be- 

 coming almost black. 

 This ruse succeeded 

 every time, the dog 

 turning ofi at once '. 

 Mr. Crossland points 

 out that in natural 



Fig. 15. — Common Starfish {Asterias 

 rubens) regenerating lost parts. It 

 shows at the top two arms which are 

 just beginning to be regrown. The 

 largest of the five arms has been 

 previously regrown double. {After 

 Mcintosh.) 



