CHAPTER XXII 



MAMMALS, CONCLUDED, ETC. PATTERNS OF MAMMALS THAT LACK DIURNAL 

 OBLITERATIVE SHADING. SKY-MATCHING PATTERNS OF MAMMALS, AND 

 A COMPARISON BETWEEN THEM AND THOSE OF BIRDS. FIXED ' DAZZLING' 

 MARKS, AND OTHER SPECIAL PHASES OF PATTERN-USE 



IN strange contrast to the many beasts whose strongly, moderately, or 

 faintly patterned ground-matching costumes are based on full and perfect 

 obliterative shading, are the few whose bold, clear patterns seem to defy that 

 foremost obliterative law * Such are the skunks (Mephitis, Conepatus, and 

 Spilogale) in America, the African Zoril or Cape Polecat (Zorilla striata), 

 the Madagascan Galidictis striata and G. vittata, and that queer, badger- 

 like stinker of the Javan mountains, the Teledu (Mydaus meliceps). These, 

 and many other small or medium-sized carnivorous mammals, are boldly 

 pied with white and black — or dusky brown — and their white is all on the 

 back and sides, while their under parts are uniformly dark.f We have here, 

 as far as these patterns go, a complete inversion of the regular obliterative 

 coloration. A true analysis of this case, which looks at first so mystifying, 

 shows it to be in truth merely one more phase and token of the infallibly close 

 correlation between animals' costumes and their environment and habits. 

 Two diametrically different uses of white are equally consistent factors of 

 animals' obliterative coloration. White on the underside, the usual culmina- 

 tion of the almost universal obliterative counter shading, serves as a neutralizer 

 of shadow, an adjuster and maintainer of the even balance between light and 

 dark; white on the upper side, as worn in various forms and proportions by a 

 good many animals, serves to imitate, to picture, the shining sky from which the 

 underside is shaded. On the one hand, it is an all-important ingredient in an 



* See footnote, p. 123. 



fThe "white" of these animals is in reality pale yellow, brown, or gray. — A. H. T. 



147 



