Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1918 edition. Excerpt: ... among mammals. To recapitulate, the exceptions occur, in the first place, among beasts that are habitually or very frequently hidden away from the light, either underground, in caves or hollow trees, in thick vegetation, or in the cloak of night. In the second place, they occur among beasts, mostly nonpredaceous, which are almost or quite immune from danger at the hands of their wild fellow-creatures, by virtue either of their great size and strength, or of a potent fixed defensive armament. In the third and last place, a few defenseless arboreal mammals are equipped for mimicry rather than obliteration. See Chapter XXII, p. 149. It is, then, among unarmed, daylight-inhabiting mammals, and among the purely rapacious mammals, both of the plains and of the forest, that obliterative coloration, based on full and simple obliterative shading, reaches its highest and most uniform development. Many of the terrestrial beasts, particularly those of the open country, are equipped with full counter shading and 'ground'-color alone, almost or quite without markings. Such are lions, wolves, jackals, kangaroos, hares and rabbits; marmots, some gophers, and several smaller rodents and marsupials; as well as many of the big ungulates or ruminants, such as wild asses, some wild bovines, and many deer and antelopes. It has long been known that the animals of the desert are extremely alike in coloration--insects, reptiles, birds and mammals all sharing the same sandy brown. But coordinate with this fact is one hitherto ignored, namely, that the colors of these desert animals do as universally and unvaryingly constitute a perfect obliterative gradation of shades, from dark above to light below. As there is great monotony and uniformity in the animals'...
