THEORIES OF MIMICRY 561 



The one thing which all these sting and stink bearers have con- 

 stantly and in common, with perhaps no exception, even including the 

 dogs and hyenas which have also anal glands (cats lack such glands and 

 also lack the habit of digging) is this : In pursuit of food, or in storing 

 it, they all either go bodily into holes, as bees and wasps into flowers 

 and fruit cavities, or ants into their galleries, and as do the weasel 

 family after burrowing mammals, or like the grubbing species above 

 mentioned, and foxes, stick their heads into holes for similar purposes. 

 In all these cases these rear-armed species have a common need to be 

 so armed, being totally helpless to defend themselves while thus im- 

 mersed. Of all animal adaptations this stink apparatus was the thing 

 most to be expected in a part of the animal so entirely defenseless. 



Picture a bee deep in a flower, or a badger with his head jammed 

 deep in a mouse hole — what a chance for his enemy ! But these hind 

 ends have taken care of themselves. Now notice the thing that seems 

 to bring final ridicule on the " badge " theory. Take, for instance, the 

 grison, Patagonian weasel, bridled weasel, the badgers and the skunk, 

 species whose white pattern is worn upon the head (the skunk's tail is 

 normally a mixture of black and white hairs — like a gray cloud) ; the 

 moment when these animals most need to advertise the offensiveness of 

 their armament would be when they were most defenseless, and this is, 

 of course, when their heads are in holes, and at such a moment their 

 " badges," being on their heads, are concealed ! The apparent reason 

 for the white patterns' extending so often along the back nearly to the 

 tail is very simple. The act of digging or of stepping down into a hole 

 tends to" bring the fore part of an animal lower than his rear, and this, 

 to eyes upon the turf, brings the whole of his back against the sky, and 

 an erect white tail (like the upturned plumes of the egret) additionally 

 blends the wearer into the sky. 



To realize how inevitable was the development of special rear pro- 

 tectors a man has only to conceive what an anxious sensation he him- 

 self would experience if in a jungle he had to spend much time with 

 his head down a hole, and the rest of his body a tempting bait for 

 tigers. 



In fine, we find upon certain species of carnivora that we know to 

 be more or less scavengers and catchers of small fry such as require 

 rather to be picked up than stalked or chased, and on others that we 

 suspect of having the same habit, the same sky-picturing patterns that, 

 from the eye-level of their prey, efface the top contours of most other 

 slow walking feeders-on-small-life, in all branches of the animal king- 

 dom. We find, on the other hand, a large number of Mustelidse, as 

 well as a number of other carnivora, well armed with stink-glands, but, 

 as if because of not feeding in the same manner, entirely without top- 

 white patterns. 



