Page:Darwinism by Alfred Wallace 1889.djvu/242

 It is interesting to note that these markings for recognition are very slightly developed in the antelopes of the woods and marshes. Thus, the grys-bok is nearly uniform in colour, except the long black-tipped ears; and it frequents the wooded mountains. The duyker-bok and the rhoode-bok are wary bush-haunters, and have no marks but the small white patch behind. The wood-haunting bosch-bok goes in pairs, and has hardly any distinctive marks on its dusky chestnut coat, but the male alone is horned. The large and handsome koodoo frequents brushwood, and its vertical white stripes are no doubt protective, while its magnificent spiral horns afford easy recognition. The eland, which is an inhabitant of the open country, is uniformly coloured, being sufficiently recognisable by its large size and distinctive form; but the Derbyan eland is a forest animal, and has a protectively striped coat. In like manner, the fine Speke's antelope, which lives entirely in the swamps and among reeds, has pale vertical stripes on the sides (protective), with white markings on face and breast for recognition. An inspection of the figures of antelopes and other animals in Wood's Natural History, or in other illustrated works, will give a better idea of the peculiarities of recognition markings than any amount of description.

Other examples of such coloration are to be seen in the dusky tints of the musk-sheep and the reindeer, to whom recognition at a distance on the snowy plains is of more importance than concealment from their few enemies. The conspicuous stripes and bands of the zebra and the quagga are probably due to the same cause, as may be the singular crests and face-marks of several of the monkeys and lemurs.