Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 4 (1900).djvu/576

542 colour consideration, cannot be regarded in itself as any evidence of conscious resemblance. For example: if we break a piece off a termite-heap and see that the inmates at once run back into the nest or avail themselves of the nearest cover they can find, we cannot assume that this is due to their intelligent recognition that their colours are out of harmony with their then surroundings, but we should rather attribute it to the instinctive avoidance of light shown by all such nocturnal creatures, an instinct which is preferably explained by natural selection.(n9)

As a matter of fact, the most satisfactory style of evidence would probably consist in a careful and exact observation of the demeanour of protectively-coloured animals, which find themselves, by a natural accident or necessity, in an environment to which their colour is quite unsuited; or, conversely, of the behaviour of striking sports or variations of such species, when occurring in their normal surroundings. If, in such cases, the animals show a distinct appreciation of the danger of their position and alter their normal habits accordingly, then the suggestion of active mimicry will be sufficiently proved, so far as those animals and their immediate allies are concerned. But if, on the other hand, they show no such appreciation and merely adopt their usual attitudes of concealment, which in that case would egregiously fail in their purpose, then this suggestion will be very strongly discounted. It seems that a careful collection and discussion of all the authenticated observations of this description would add considerably to our knowledge of animal psychology. Perhaps, however, this has been already done, for it is impossible to keep abreast of scientific thought and work when living on the very outskirts of civilisation. I may here refer to one or two examples of this kind which tend to show that many cases of protective actions on the part of the higher vertebrates must be attributed to rather than to conscious volition.

The late Mr. Romanes very truly remarked, that "Every sportsman must have noticed that the somewhat rare melanic variety of the common Rabbit will crouch as steadily as the normal brownish-grey type, notwithstanding that, owing to its normal colour, a 'nigger rabbit' thus renders itself the most conspicuous object in the landscape. In all such cases, of course, there has been a deviation from the normal type in respect of colour, with the result that the inherited instinct is no longer in tune with the other endowments of the animal" ('Darwin and after Darwin,' p. 320). Again, to quote Mr. Distant himself, in reference to the crouching habits of the South African Francolinus, he says: "Subsequently I observed how this action