The Human Side of Animals | Page 6

of
dark-brown fur throughout the long, cold winters. The matter of his
obtaining food, however, is easy, for he lives in burrows, near streams
where he can catch fish and small animals that live in or near the water.
A number of the old-school naturalists believed that when an animal's
colouring assumed the snowy-white coat of its arctic surroundings, this
was due to the natural tendency on the part of its hair and fur to assume
the colourings and tints of their habitat. This, however, is absolutely
false; and no better proof of it can be offered than the case of the arctic
musk-ox, who is far more polar in his haunts than even the polar bear,
and is therefore exposed to the whitening influence of the wintry
regions more than the bear. Yet he never turns white, but is always
brown. The only enemy of this northern-dweller is the arctic wolf, and
against this enemy he is protected by powerful hoofs, thick hair, and
immense horns. He does not need to conceal himself, and therefore
does not simulate the colour of his surroundings.

[Illustration: American Museum of Natural History, New York
THE INDIANS CLAIM THAT THE MOTHER BISON FORCED
HER CALF TO ROLL OFTEN IN A PUDDLE OF RED CLAY, SO
THAT IT MIGHT BE INDISTINGUISHABLE AGAINST ITS RED
CLAY BACKGROUND.]
[Illustration: American Museum of Natural History, New York
THE ZEBRA IS ONE OF THE CLEVEREST OF CAMOUFLAGERS.
THE BLACK-AND-WHITE STRIPES OF HIS BODY GIVE THE
EFFECT OF SUNLIGHT PASSING THROUGH BUSHES.]
Mimetic resemblances are worked out with great difficulty, except in
such cases as the nocturnal animals, which simply become one with
their surroundings. Mice, rats, moles, and bats wear overcoats that are
very inconspicuous, and when suddenly approached they appear almost
invisible. Some of the North American Indians claimed that buffaloes
made their calves wallow in the red clay to prevent them from being
seen when they were lying down in the red soil.
The kinds of protection from these mimetic resemblances are many and
varied: the lion, because of his sandy-colouring, is able to conceal
himself by merely crouching down upon the desert sands; the striped
tiger hides among the tufts of grass and bamboos of the tropics, the
stripes of his body so blending with the vertical stems as to prevent
even the natives from seeing him in this position. The kudu, one of the
handsomest of the antelopes, is a remarkable animal in several ways.
His camouflage is so perfect that it gives him magnificent courage.
With his spiral horns, white face, and striped coat tinted in pale blue, he
is almost invisible when hiding in a thicket. The perfect harmony of his
horns with the twisted vines and branches, and the white colourings
with blue tints in the reflected sunlight conceal him entirely.
The snow-leopard, which inhabits Central Asia, is stony-grey, with
large annular spots to match the rocks among which he lives. This
colouration conceals him from the sheep, upon which he preys; while
the spotted and blotchy pattern of the so-called clouded tiger, and the

peculiarly-barred skin of the ocelot, imitate the rugged bark of trees,
upon which these animals live.
One of the most unusual and skilled mimics is the Indian sloth, whose
colour pattern and unique eclipsing effects seem almost incredible to
those unfamiliar with the real facts. His home is in the trees, and he has
a deep, orange-coloured spot on his back, which would make him very
conspicuous if seen out of his home surroundings. But he is very clever,
and clings to the moss-draped trees, where the effect of the
orange-coloured spot is exactly like the scar on the tree, while his hair
resembles the withered moss so strikingly that even naturalists are
deceived.
Henry Drummond must have known the animal world rather well when
he remarked that "Carlisle in his blackest visions of 'shams and
humbugs' among humanity never saw anything so finished in hypocrisy
as the naturalist now finds in every tropical forest. There are to be seen
creatures, not singly, but in tens of thousands, whose every appearance,
down to the minutest spot and wrinkle, is an affront to truth, whose
every attitude is a pose for a purpose, and whose whole life is a
sustained lie. Before these masterpieces of deception the most
ingenious of human impositions are vulgar and transparent. Fraud is
not only the great rule of life in a tropical forest, but the one condition
of it."
Many of the larger cats live in trees, and most of them have spotted or
oscillated skins, which aid them in hiding among foliage plants. The
puma who wears a brown coat is an exception, but it must be
remembered that he does not need the kind of coat his fellow friends
wear. He