36 
PATTERNS ON LIVING ANIMALS 
marked of any of their species. The list given above 
is far from exhaustive, and as the first, and often the 
most pleasing, part of these minor inquiries into nature 
consists in the collection and classifying of likenesses, 
it offers an attraction as great as any obvious induce- 
ments to observation in the Society’s collection. Some 
day we shall perhaps see in the cases at South 
Kensington a collection of examples of the repetition 
of ornament, as well as of the evolution of ornament 
in nature. The origin of the first is now explained. 
But on what hypothesis can we account for the 
second ? 
The observation of these patterns should extend 
throughout the year if it is to be complete. The 
typical pheasants are only in perfect plumage in 
winter, and these delicate ornaments are much affected 
by the physical condition of the wearer. In the fish, 
as we have seen, they almost entirely disappear after 
the bodily vigour of the spring season has departed. 
In late summer and early autumn the pheasants and 
peacocks are moulting ; the tropical moths, on the 
other hand, which have such beautiful analogies with 
the bird plumage, are hatching out in May. The 
pretty little tropical finches take far less time to moult 
than some of the larger birds, or are less affected in 
plumage, and the minute but accurate reproductions 
of the patterns on the wood-duck, wild duck, and 
jungle-fowl which appear on their diminutive bodies 
may be seen at almost any season in the Parrot House. 
The flower gardening at the Zoo is now maintained at 
