1884.] 
in the Animal World. 
577 
rarely striking deep colour,— a fa ft which must be connected 
with the frequent transparency of their bodies. 
Sea-animals which live among Algae, and in situations 
rich in marine vegetation, have a more varied and lively 
range of colouration than such as live among stones or on 
the sandy bottom. 
The dull, sombre colouring of fresh-water insedts needs 
only a passing notice. 
High- and strong-flying birds have not, in general, a 
striking colouration. 
Land-animals, which live in the woods, beneath herbs, 
on bushes, or on flowers, &c., have more manifold and more 
striking colours than the inhabitants of bare sandy or rocky 
localities. The “ Desert colour ” of the Arabian and Saha- 
ran fauna has been particularly insisted on by Canon 
Tristram. 
Contrary to the somewhat premature assertion of Mr. 
Grant Allen, there is no universal and constant connection 
between the colouration of animals and the nature of their 
diet. Insectivorous, or rather zoophagous, animals, which 
live under leaves and among flowers, have often brilliant 
and varied colours ; whilst phytophagous species, if they do 
not regularly inhabit leaves and blossoms, are often dull and 
monotonous in colour. 
Still this generalisation is as far as that of Mr. Grant 
Allen from accounting for the splendid colouration of, c.g., 
the genus Phaneus, devourers of excrement and carrion, 
among which they have their dwelling. 
The richer an animal group is in species the more varied, 
and in many cases the brighter, is their colouring. This 
law is well illustrated by the humming-birds. But it fails 
us in not a few striking cases, among which we need merely 
mention the great group of the Brachelytra, or rove-beetles, 
the Harpalidas, and the genus Aphodius. 
The development of colour bears no direCt relation to the 
proportion of light to which the animal is exposed. It is 
rather direftly connected with the general development of 
animals. Defeaive nutrition and diseases impoverish the 
colours. 
We need scarcely add that the views of L. Camerano, as 
regards the influence of light, agree substantially with those 
of Mr. A. R. Wallace. 
A very dry climate seems to darken colours, whilst a 
very moist one rather brightens or lightens them. The 
colours of animals are modified by the altitude of the 
station of a species above the sea-level. The higher we 
