542 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



colour consideration, cannot be regarded in itself as any evidence of 

 conscious resemblance. For example : if we break a piece off a 

 termite-heap and see that the inmates at once run back into the nest 

 or avail themselves of the nearest cover they can find, we cannot 

 assume that this is due to their intelligent recognition that their 

 colours are out of harmony with their then surroundings, but we should 

 rather attribute it to the instinctive avoidance of light shown by all 

 such nocturnal creatures, an instinct which is preferably explained by 

 natural selection. 9 



As a matter of fact, the most satisfactory style of evidence would 

 probably consist in a careful and exact observation of the demeanour 

 of protectively-coloured animals, which find themselves, by a natural 

 accident or necessity, in an environment to which their colour is 

 quite unsuited ; or, conversely, of the behaviour of striking sports or 

 variations of such species, when occurring in their normal surround- 

 ings. If, in such cases, the animals show a distinct appreciation 

 of the danger of their position and alter their normal habits accord- 

 ingly, then the suggestion of active mimicry will be sufficiently 

 proved, so far as those animals and their immediate allies are 

 concerned. But if, on the other hand, they show no such appre- 

 ciation and merely adopt their usual attitudes of concealment, which 

 in that case would egregiously fail in their purpose, then this sug- 

 gestion will be very strongly discounted. It seems that a careful 

 collection and discussion of all the authenticated observations of 

 this description would add considerably to our knowledge of animal 

 psychology. Perhaps, however, this has been already done, for it is 

 impossible to keep abreast of scientific thought and work when living 

 on the very outskirts of civilisation. I may here refer to one or two 

 examples of this kind which tend to show that many cases of protective 

 actions on the part of the higher vertebrates must be attributed to 

 unreasoning instinct rather than to conscious volition. 



The late Mr. Romanes very truly remarked, that " Every sportsman 

 must have noticed that the somewhat rare melanic variety of the 

 common Rabbit will crouch as steadily as the normal brownish-grey 

 type, notwithstanding that, owing to its normal colour, a ' nigger 

 rabbit ' thus renders itself the most conspicuous object in the land- 

 scape. In all such cases, of course, there has been a deviation from 

 the normal type in respect of colour, with the result that the inherited 

 instinct is no longer in tune with the other endowments of the animal" 

 (' Darwin and after Darwin,' p. 320). Again, to quote Mr. Distant 

 himself, in reference to the crouching habits of the South African 

 Francolinus, he says : " Subsequently I observed how this action 





