PATTERNS ON LIVING ANIMALS 
35 
the great northern diver and its relations; and in a 
faint reproduction on the wings of the wood-leopard 
moth. A very elegant and decorative ornament is the 
“ wave-line ” pattern. This, like the chestnut ground 
and white spot, is constantly reproduced in the same 
colours, black on grey, or grey on black. It appears 
on the side of the wild duck, on Swinhoe’s pheasant, in 
which bird it is the main form of ornament, on the 
neck of the grass-parakeet, on the sand-grouse, on 
several common species of iris, and on the wings 
of the Brahma moths, surrounding the ball ornament 
to which we have referred. The inference to be drawn 
from these coincidences must be left to practical zoo- 
logists. But the fact that natural patterns, as applied 
to animals and plants, while at times showing the 
utmost elaboration of design, are so limited in number, 
and applied with so little modification in colour or 
form to birds, fishes, insects, and plants alike, seems 
an inviting subject for inquiry. 
Meantime it would be a charming amusement to 
any one who desires a new and not too exacting 
intellectual interest in a visit to the Zoological Gardens, 
to go from the aviaries to the wild-fowl ponds, and 
from the pheasants in their runs to the finches in 
their cages in the Parrot House, and make a complete 
list of the possessors of each form of these distinct 
and arbitrary animal patterns. By so doing, he would 
incidentally secure an acquaintance with the most 
beautiful of all the birds, for the possessors of these 
ornaments are generally among the most elaborately 
