THE COLORATION OF LARGE ANIMALS 17 
that ears of ordinary size suffice for the creature’s 
hearing. 
The mention of the okapi recalls the fact that the colora- . 
tion of the upper part of the legs and hindquarters takes 
the form of narrow black and white stripes, running, how- 
ever, more horizontally than vertically, but evidently 
conforming to the characteristic forest type. To attempt 
to discuss why the coloration of the rest of this remarkable 
animal is uniform would be premature in the absence of 
any definite information with regard to its mode of life. 
From the foregoing observations it seems evident that 
in Africa, and in that country alone (for there are no 
vertically striped ungulates in Asia), there are two distinct 
types of protective coloration, the one generally associated 
with large ears, for animals frequenting forest or brush- 
wood, and the other for those living in more open country. 
The forest type takes the form of white stripes, either upon 
a fawn or chestnut or upon a black ground (the dark 
intervals being broad in the former case and narrow in 
the latter), or of a white network upon a liver-coloured 
ground. On the other hand, in the plain type we have 
either an alternation of broad dark and light vertical 
stripes or dark blotches upon a buff ground. Both forms 
of the latter type have been definitely stated to render the 
animals in which they occur more or less inconspicuous 
at comparatively short distances. But, so far as I am 
aware, there are absolutely no observations to indicate the 
degree of invisibility in the wild state of the two modi- 
fications of the forest type. Probably, however, the 
alternations of dark and light vertical stripes harmonise 
with the vertical lines formed by stems of underwood and 
the spaces between them. 
We also want to know whether either or both of these 
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