the roe is the Capreolus sibiricus subecaudatus of Pallas.) states that
in Siberia a change of this nature occurs with the wolf, two species of
Mustela, the domestic horse, the Equus hemionus, the domestic cow, two
species of antelopes, the musk-deer, the roe, elk, and reindeer. The
roe, for instance, has a red summer and a greyish-white winter coat;
and the latter may perhaps serve as a protection to the animal whilst
wandering through the leafless thickets, sprinkled with snow and
hoar-frost. If the above-named animals were gradually to extend their
range into regions perpetually covered with snow, their pale
winter-coats would probably be rendered through natural selection,
whiter and whiter, until they became as white as snow.
Mr. Reeks has given me a curious instance of an animal profiting by
being peculiarly coloured. He raised from fifty to sixty white and
brown piebald rabbits in a large walled orchard; and he had at the same
time some similarly coloured cats in his house. Such cats, as I have
often noticed, are very conspicuous during day; but as they used to lie
in watch during the dusk at the mouths of the burrows, the rabbits
apparently did not distinguish them from their parti-coloured brethren.
The result was that, within eighteen months, every one of these
parti-coloured rabbits was destroyed; and there was evidence that this
was effected by the cats. Colour seems to be advantageous to another
animal, the skunk, in a manner of which we have had many instances in
other classes. No animal will voluntarily attack one of these creatures
on account of the dreadful odour which it emits when irritated; but
during the dusk it would not easily be recognised and might be attacked
by a beast of prey. Hence it is, as Mr. Belt believes (37. The
Naturalist in Nicaragua, p. 249.), that the skunk is provided with a
great white bushy tail, which serves as a conspicuous warning.
[Fig. 70. Tragelaphus scriptus, male (from the Knowsley Menagerie).
Fig. 71. Damalis pygarga, male (from the Knowsley Menagerie).]
Although we must admit that many quadrupeds have received their present
tints either as a protection, or as an aid in procuring prey, yet with
a host of species, the colours are far too conspicuous and too
singularly arranged to allow us to suppose that they serve for these
purposes. We may take as an illustration certain antelopes; when we see
the square white patch on the throat, the white marks on the fetlocks,
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