No. 605] 



ANIMAL COLORATION 



261 



ponents. To Piepers,^' for example, specific coloration is 

 in large part a visible token of internal organization de- 

 termined from time immemorial, a result of orthoge- 

 netic evolution capable, however, of being accelerated or 

 retarded by external conditions. To Packard^- it repre- 

 sented a racial response of organism to environment, and 

 mimicry seemed an effect of exposure to conditions of the 

 same kind. But if evolutionary processes be largely be- 

 yond the control of external agents, and species spring 

 from species through internal reorganization, as one con- 

 figuration follows another in the kaleidoscope, one should 

 anticipate that many color combinations of exaggerated 

 conspicuousness might result. If, upon the other hand, 

 the development of color and pattern be determined by 

 animals' environment, their coloration may well repeat 

 dominant notes from their surroundings. Hence it is not 

 surprising to find that Packard expresses hearty appre- 

 ciation of Thayer's discoveries, and Piepers, despite his 

 anti-Darwinian attitude, might have much in common 

 with Wallace and Poulton. Thus the full series of con- 

 tradictions is rounded out, and the unsettled state of 

 opinion concerning mimicry, or indeed the whole matter 

 of animal coloration, is apparent, for the two qualities, 

 utility and conspicuousness, openly or tacitly affirmed or 

 denied, may be ascribed in every possible combination to 

 the color and pattern of a single organism. 



It may apparently be stated safely without qualification 

 that the bright colors of tropical fishes as a class are cor- 

 related with the animals' habits, and, in the case of all but 

 red, distinctly repeat tones characterizing their normal 

 environment. But, other things being equal, no one will 

 maintain that any system of external pigmentation could 

 be less conspicuous than one conforming to this principle. 

 Therefore, among these ei-eatures at least, the occurrence 

 of bright colors in contrastive patterns is not inconsistent 

 mill the idea that the forms that display them are as in- 

 conspicuous as may be under the conditions in which they 



11 ' ' :^rinukry, Selektion nnd Parwinisnms. ' ' Leiden, 1903. 

 i^Pror. Anur. Fliilos. Soc, Vol. 43, p. 421. 



