COLOURS AND COLORATION 35 



To-day the lion is a dweller in the open, the tiger in dense 

 jungles, where his stripes, harmonising with the tall reed i 

 stems, make him invisible, and so the more able to stalk' 

 his prey without being seen. 



Whether, from the very dawn of their development, 

 the coloration of mammals was relieved by a pattern of 

 some sort, or whether they slowly evolved, first a striped 

 and then a spotted livery, in accordance with the needs 

 of their environment, or not, we cannot say. But it is 

 certain that a considerable number of mammalia at the 

 present day seem to do best with a coat devoid of any 

 distinctive markings at all. The lion affords a striking 

 case in point. But in this species the teU-tale spots 

 survive in the young. In the majority of cases, however, 

 even these have vanished, and from birth to old age 

 the coat is " self-coloured." 



In most cases of this kind the young do not differ 

 appreciably, if at all, from their parents. But we find 

 striking exceptions to this rule. Thus, fox cubs are 

 of a uniform smoke-grey colour, contrasting strongly 

 therein with their parents. The young of certain seals, 

 however, present some puzzling features. In the case 

 of the common seal the " pup " is of a uniform yellowish 

 white colour but the adult is spotted ; while in the Harp 

 seal (Phoca grcenlandica) the young is white, the adult 

 ornamented by a long bow-shaped belt of dark brown 

 on either side of the body, the ends of the bow meeting 

 over the back to enclose a space. Now, here — and the 

 seals furnish yet other similar cases — the normal condi- 

 tions are reversed, for where a " self-coloured " stage is 

 contrasted with one displaying a marked pattern, one 

 has come to expect the young to display the pattern, the 

 adult the patternless condition. 



