POSTSCRIPT 129 



Professor Eimer makes no distinction between light and dark markings ... 

 nevertheless we may provisionally Consider light and dark stripes and light 

 and dark spots as respectively equivalent to one another.' 



I presume that by the ' lowest groups of all ' Mr. Lydekker means the mar- 

 supials. Biologists look upon these animals as the most primitive types of 

 mammals, and therefore the oldest. This, I should say, is a good reason 

 for believing that they had, compared with others, a far lojiger time to 

 change in, conformably with surroundings of sorts, and therefore it must 

 be a wonder that we meet with any of them which are marked at all 

 with either spots, stripes, or bands. Nevertheless some of the marked 

 ones still survive ! 



This, in my humble opinion, is sufficient evidence that both they and 

 the other mammals of superior organisation came from the same marked 

 stock. 



P. 5. ' The fact that the markings of young Pigs take the form of longi- 

 tudinal stripes, whereas in the more specialised Deer, whether young or old, 

 they are in the shape of spots arranged in more or less well-defined lines, is, 

 as far as it goes, a confirmation of the theory that " spots " are newer than 

 stripes.' 



My own studies of this interesting question have led me to just the 

 opposite conclusion — viz., that spots are older than stripes, and that 

 rosettes are the oldest of all markings. 



Perhaps too much stress has been laid on the word specialised. 

 Although the skeleton may be highly specialised, it does not appear to me 

 io follow that the exterior of the animal will maxch. pari passu with its in- 

 terior. Indeed we know that it does not. For the young and the adult 

 of the Puma are both equally specialised, yet the former is spotted, while 

 the latter is plain. It seems to me that the exterior of a mammal would 

 be more actively influenced by its surroundings of sorts than its interior. 

 And so it happens that we find, among so many differently specialised 

 orders, survivals of ancient coloration, which occur in spite of the special- 

 isation conformable with the order to which each may now belong. 



With regard to the longitudinal stripe down the back, several views 

 seem to suggest themselves as to its origin : («) It may be an extreme 

 contraction of a broadly dark back, such as that of some Squirrels ; (b) 

 It may be a fusion of the oblong black spots which we see along the 

 spine of many Leopards. It may persist longer, for some reason, along 



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