MIMICRY. 127 



ledge of habits combined with power of eye and hand are 

 successful, and command the intense respect of the ordinary 

 floggers of the stream. We may possess the most accurate 

 knowledge of whist, and play according to the strictest rules, 

 but one of the quartette is a Napoleon in the game, he judges 

 and acts with an instinctive finesse, and the odd trick is won. 

 Or take the boys in a large stable who are trained to ride 

 racehorses at exercise: how few become jockeys; to possess 

 " hands," judgment, nerve, and a knowledge of pace is only an 

 occasional gift of the gods. And so in nature at large ; all are 

 not masters of the game, and the mimicking species have a general 

 immunity from attack, save from those incontestable creatures 

 who amongst all animal life, including our own, levy their own 

 rates, successfully collect their own tithe, and command the 

 attention, if not always the love, of their fellows. Animal 

 disguise and mimicry serve an ever purpose, if they do not 

 constitute a constant end ; they are often partial and exceptional, 

 and not in result universal. Like human impostors, they are by 

 such means frequently able to live, thrive, and perpetuate their 

 kind. But all depends upon not being found out ; there must 

 be many Mr. Pickwicks and few Sherlock Holmes. To believe 

 that a gradual mimicry can slowly arise by the process of natural 

 selection which shall be anything but a very partial defence of 

 the eatable from the eaters, is to imagine our most intelligent 

 and civilized communities capable of being made invulnerable 

 from the depredations of thieves and swindlers. An example is 

 afforded by the colour of the Common Hare. Prof. Poulton 

 makes much of this. He remarks: " It would be hardly possible 

 to meet with a better example of protective colouring and attitude 

 than that of the Hare as it sits motionless, exactly resembling a 

 lump of brown earth, for which indeed it is frequently mis- 

 taken." * But the protection thus assumed appears to be 

 founded on partial observation. To a casual evolutionist in 

 search of evidence, whose knowledge of the animal is not inti- 

 mate, and whose pursuit of the same is a chase not sharpened by 

 necessity, the Hare affords illustrative importance. But let a 

 sportsman, a poacher, or a farmer speak on the subject, and the 

 whole conclusion vanishes. Jefferies may at least be quoted as a 



* ' Colours of Animals,' p. 67. 



