SPOTTED AND STRIPED MAMMALS 49 



there is absolutely no water, and Elands, in common with Gems- 

 buck and Giraffe, live and thrive there, and appear to do better 

 than in well-watered parts of the country. He thinks that in the 

 dry seasons these desert animals get the necessary amount of water 

 by eating a watery melon, which is plentiful, and a white watery 

 bulb, looking much like a turnip. 



Among Antelopes, we have the head of a Kudu with three white 

 spots on its cheek.i Then in Appendix A, No. 27, is shown one 

 solitary broad stripe on the hind-quarters of the Waterbuck. These, 

 like the ring-tails of many animals, I take to be simply vestiges of 

 moire extensive ancestral spotting and striping. Indeed, climate, 

 food, and age may have a great deal to do with the retention or 

 disappearance of spots and stripes. We see that in the Deer of 

 Fig. 30 the spots wholly disappear with age, while in these two 

 Antelopes all spots and stripes disappear, excepting, maybe, three 

 cheek spots in the one and one haunch stripe in the other. 



Mr. Selous says : ' In the Mashura country every Eland cow is 

 plainly striped. One had nine broad white ^ stripes on each side. 

 Elands that are much striped have a whitish mark across the nose, 

 like the Kudu. Old bulls have no stripes. Great variations occur 

 in this- respect.' 



Again turning to Dogs, we find that spotting and striping are 

 found among them also. 



Fig. 3 1 shows a distinctly spotted Dog.^ Whether the Dog got 



^ Shown in Mr. Selous' book, in vol. ii. figs, i and 2. 



" It should be noted that in certain mammals, such as the Tiger and Zebra, the 

 stripes are black : while in these Antelopes the stripes are white. Both spots and stripes 

 are liable to change from black to white, or vice versd ; that is, white becomes melanoid, 

 and black becomes albinoid. 



^ In the Natural History Museum there is a Phalanger — a marsupial — spotted much 

 in a similar manner. In the Encyclop. Brit, the picture of a flying Phalanger is given 

 with transverse stripes on its back. In Somerset I saw a sucking Pig which was spotted 

 almost like some Dalmatian Dogs, but the spots were larger. 



D 



