ASSIMILATIVE COLOURATION, 401 
haggard and miserable got quite plump and fresh; some of them 
ate about thirty at a meal, and we now saw each other with clean 
faces, for we used the eggs as soap; while a most remarkable 
thing was that everyone had fair skins and light hair, dark faces 
and hair being quite changed, black hair turning brown or red, 
and fairer people quite flaxen. As for myself, my complexion 
was pink and white, like a girl’s” (this after four months’ constant 
exposure to the weather), ‘‘ with white eyebrows, yellow hair, &c.”’ 
The survivors were rescued on Jan. 21st, 1876, and the same lady 
subsequently writes :—‘‘ Charlie looks well and firm now, his hair 
had got quite flaxen, which didnot suit him at all, but now it has 
nearly recovered its original colour.”* Here, presumably, the 
colouring factor is considered as the constant diet of Penguins’ 
eggs.. As Darwin has observed: ‘‘ There can, however, be little 
doubt about many slight changes, such as size from the amount of 
food, colour from the nature of the food.” + Climatic conditions 
are not altogether inoperative, and an extreme case is recorded 
by Andersson in the Ovambo country, South-west Africa. In 
describing the bitterly cold nights experienced in the month of 
June, he states that one of his men, Timbo, a native of Portuguese 
East Africa, suffered much from the low temperature, and one 
morning the members of the expedition were amazed at finding 
“his dark shiny skin suddenly changed into a pale ashy grey.” { 
The view of a direct action caused by a constant food on 
animal colouration has frequently been remarked. Mr. Harvie 
Brown thought that the Sand Martin might derive its black or 
dark-coloured plumage in North Russia by constant feeding on 
Mosquitos.§ Most natives of Brazil take pleasure in intercourse 
with animals. They are in the habit of attaching Monkeys and 
Parrots to themselves, and by feeding the latter on fish they 
produce red and yellow feathers when the plumage is green.|| 
The Bullfinch is well known to turn black when fed on hemp- 
seeds, and the Canary to become red when fed on cayenne 
pepper.{1 According to Mr. Harting, “ Bullfinches are not the 
* © Nature,’ vol. xiv. p. 527 (quoted from ‘ Blackwood’s Magazine’). 
+ ‘Origin of Species,’ 6th edition, p. 6. 
t ‘Lake Ngami,’ p. 210. 
\  § ‘Zoologist,’ p. 5162. 
|| Oscar Peschel, ‘ The Races of Man,’ p. 423. 
Si Romanes, ‘ Darwin, and after Darwin,’ vol. il. p. 218. 
