s said to be able to subsist on fruits and
berries in winter, and to be so active upon the trees as to catch small
birds among the branches. So also the woodchuck of Canada has a
dark-brown fur; but then it lives in burrows and frequents river banks,
catching fish and small animals that live in or near the water.

Among birds, the ptarmigan is a fine example of protective colouring.
Its summer plumage so exactly harmonizes with the lichen-coloured stones
among which it delights to sit, that a person may walk through a flock
of them without seeing a single bird; while in winter its white plumage
is an almost equal protection. The snow-bunting, the jerfalcon, and the
snowy owl are also white-coloured birds inhabiting the arctic regions,
and there can be little doubt but that their colouring is to some extent
protective.

Nocturnal animals supply us with equally good illustrations. Mice, rats,
bats, and moles possess the least conspicuous of hues, and must be quite
invisible at times when any light colour would be instantly seen. Owls
and goatsuckers are of those dark mottled tints that will assimilate
with bark and lichen, and thus protect them during the day, and at the
same time be inconspicuous in the dusk.

It is only in the tropics, among forests which never lose their foliage,
that we find whole groups of birds whose chief colour is green. The
parrots are the most striking example, but we have also a group of green
pigeons in the East; and the barbets, leaf-thrushes, bee-eaters,
white-eyes, turacos, and several smaller groups, have so much green in
their plumage as to tend greatly to conceal them among the foliage.

The conformity of tint which has been so far shown to exist between
animals and their habitations is of somewhat general character; we will
now consider the cases of more special adaptation. If the lion is
enabled by his sandy colour readily to conceal himself by merely
crouching down in the desert, how, it may be asked, do the elegant
markings of the tiger, the jaguar, and the other large cats agree with
this theory? We reply that these are generally cases of more or less
special adaptation. The tiger is a jungle animal, and hides himself
among tufts of grass or of bamboos, and in these positions the vertical
stripes with which his body is adorned must so assimilate with the
vertical stems of the bamboo, as to assist greatly in concealing him
from his approaching prey. How remarkable it is that besid