464 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
spots, stripes, and other prominent markings, have been intensi- 
fied, preserved, or made permanent by a selective process, and 
have become, and are, of the greatest utility to the animals which 
possess them. Eimer, on the contrary, from the evidence of the 
markings on Cats and Dogs, is inclined to ascribe such markings 
as ‘“‘due to external conditions and an internal direction of 
evolution, and can be acquired and inherited in spite of all 
pammixes ’*—cessation of selection, or the present non-impor- 
tance of such characters in the struggle for existence. Mr. A. 
Tylor’s views (‘Colouration of Animals and Plants’), as sum- 
marized by Mr. Wallace, were that the primitive form of orna- 
mentation consisted of spots, the confluence of these in certain 
directions forming lines or bands; and these again sometimes 
coalescing into blotches, or into more or less uniform tints 
covering a large portion of the surface of the body.t It seems, 
however, more in consonance with present knowledge and opinion 
to consider that spots, though primitive, were not original, and 
succeeded, not preceded, unicolorous ornamentation, which has 
survived only where it has been more or less in unison with the 
creature’s environment, and so afforded ‘‘ aggressive protection,” 
as in the case of the Lion. Some of the best observations on 
this point are often made by travellers who know little of the 
subject, are not zoologists, have no preconceived ideas, but 
possess a clear mind with which to observe common facts. Such 
an observation on the colour of the Lion is to be found in a 
recent book written by two ladies recounting their experiences in 
Mashonaland :—“ His coat was soft and bright, and of a tawny 
colour—not unlike that of a mastiff—with black points. 'I'his 
colour is so like that of the sun-dried grass, that it can with 
difficulty be distinguished from it.” { If, however, it may be 
considered as rash to speculate on an original unicolorous or 
* Organic Evolution,’ pp. 115-16. 
+ ‘Darwinism,’ p. 289. Among the Weasels (Mustelide), ‘there is a 
tendency for the different colours to arrange themselves in longitudinal lines 
or patches, so as to make the whole of the upper surface of the body light, 
and its under surface dark; and in no case are there either spots or trans- 
verse bands of colour, while equally noteworthy is the entire absence of 
alternating dark and light rings of colour in the tail’’ (Lydekker, ‘ Roy. Nat. 
Hist.,’ vol. ii. p. 47). 
{ ‘Advent, in Mashonaland by two Hospital Nurses’ (Col. Hdit.), p. 277, 
