850 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



If there is truth in this view, it should be emphasized by the fact 

 that animals of great fecundity, as a rule, possess little protective 

 disguise in colouration or markings, and this, in a great measure, 

 appears to be the case, despite the somewhat contrary evidence 

 which tends to be deducible from the colours of many flat-fishes. 

 Even in this case we must remember that other senses besides 

 those of sight may be used to discover a semi-concealed prey. 

 The extreme hardihood of certain animals after injury is also an 

 agency in "survival." Prof. Mcintosh relates that "a full-grown 

 female Picked-Dogfish was captured in the stake-nets for Salmon 

 some years ago with its stomach distended with food. In dis- 

 secting the apparently dead animal in the laboratory the heart 

 pulsated actively, though it and the pericardium were covered 

 with old and recent lymph, caused by the irritation of a large 

 Cod-hook, the point of which projected into the pericardium, and 

 against which the heart seemed to impinge during contraction. 

 An Eel will live for a year or two with a hook projecting through 

 the gut into the abdomen, and the glutinous Hag (Myxine) is 

 also hardy under similar circumstances."* In so often seeking 

 for the explanation of animal survival by mimetic or assimilative 

 disguises, we are probably endeavouring to open too many locks 

 with one key. 



Colour alone may prove a false analogy to protection. Mr. 

 Beddard has well observed : — " The bluish and white colour of 

 many Gulls is generally allowed to be of protective value ; in any 

 case, they are not unlike their usual surroundings. For three 

 years several of the common species of Gulls have a brownish 

 speckled plumage, which is totally unlike that of the old bird ; if 

 one colour is advantageous, the other must be the reverse ; and 

 three years is either a considerable period, or not long enough."! 

 Another illustration is from a writer who, recording his views as 

 to protective resemblances in South America, describes the well- 

 known butterfly, Ageronia feronica, which rests with its wings 

 expanded horizontally. When seen on the " grey lichens or 

 bark of the tree-trunk," it is " then so like in colour and mark- 

 ings to the surface on which it rests that it is practically invisible 



:;: ' Journal of Mental Science,' April, 1898. 

 f ' Animal Coloration,' '2nd edit. p. 29. 



