If the view of original assimilative colouration is reasonable and probable, then it should receive support from the generally understood derivation of spots and stripes by a process of "natural selection," though, as we suggest, and as will be explained later on, natural selection must be regarded as a permitting and perpetuating force, rather than as a creative agency.[1] Two instances will here suffice for a consideration of this point in colouration, and are both based on the observations of two competent and excellent observers. The first relates to that prominently striped animal the Zebra, and was made by Mr. F. Galton:—"No more conspicuous animal can well be conceived, according to common idea, than a Zebra; but on a bright starlight night the breathing of one may be heard close by you, and yet you will be positively unable to see the animal. If the black stripes were more numerous he would be seen as a black mass; if the white, as a white one; but their proportion is such as exactly to match the pale tint which arid ground possesses when seen by moon-light."[2] The second observation was made by that renowned sportsman, General Douglas Hamilton, and relates to the Spotted Deer and Tiger in India:—"For example, the Axis, or Spotted Deer as it is generally called, is something like the Fallow Deer in colour, only the white spots and markings are more distinct, and the body is a brighter red; one would imagine such a conspicuous animal could be easily distinguished in the forest, but the spots and colour so amalgamate with the broken lights and shades that I have often taken a shot at which I thought was a solitary Spotted Deer, and have been astonished to see ten or twelve dash away. The Tiger, again, with his bright body, black stripes, and white markings, is most difficult to see in the forest, arid even on the open hill side; at three hundred or four hundred yards distant not a stripe is distinguishable. More than once I have mistaken a Tiger for a light-coloured hind Sambur, until I have brought the telescope to bear and seen my mistake."[3] General Kinloch, as quoted by Lydekker, referring
- ↑ "The origin of protective colours is to be sought in fortuitous variation preserved by selection" (Dr. Hart Merriam,—Balt. Meet. Am. Soc. Nat.,—vide 'Science,' new ser. vol. i. p. 38).
- ↑ 'Narr. Explor. in Trop. S. Africa' (Minerva Lib. Edit.), p. 187.
- ↑ 'Records of Sport in Southern India,' p. 41.
