take the bearer under modern conditions is far from
certain, and in any case the few men on the enemy's side who would be
brave enough to shoot accurately under heavy shell fire would, however
destructive to the colour party, scarcely inflict as much damage on the
battalion as a whole, as a dozen or more accidental shells from the
massed artillery of its own side.

COLOUR-SERGEANT, a non-commissioned officer of infantry, ranking, in the
British army, as the senior non-commissioned officer of each company. He
is charged with many administrative duties, and usually acts as pay
sergeant. A special duty of the colour-sergeants of a battalion is that
of attending and guarding the colours and the officers carrying them. In
some foreign armies the colours are actually carried by
colour-sergeants. The rank was created in the British army in 1813.

COLOURS OF ANIMALS. Much interest attaches in modern biology to the
questions involved in the colours of animals. The subject may best be
considered in two divisions: (1) as regards the uses of colour in the
struggle for existence and in sexual relationships; (2) as regards the
chemical causation.

1. BIONOMICS

_Use of Colour for Concealment._--_Cryptic colouring_ is by far the
commonest use of colour in the struggle for existence. It is employed
for the purpose of attack (_aggressive resemblance_ or _anticryptic
colouring_) as well as of defence (_protective resemblance_ or
_procryptic colouring_). The fact that the same method, concealment, may
be used both for attack and defence has been well explained by T. Belt
(_The Naturalist in Nicaragua_, London, 1888), who suggests as an
illustration the rapidity of movement which is also made use of by both
pursuer and pursued, which is similarly raised to a maximum in both by
the gradual dying out of the slowest through a series of generations.
Cryptic colouring is commonly associated with other aids in the struggle
for life. Thus well-concealed mammals and birds, when discovered, will
generally endeavour to escape by speed, and will often attempt to defend
themselves actively. On the other hand, small animals which have no
means of active defence, such as large numbers of insects, frequently
depend upon concealment alone. Protective resemblance is far commoner
among animals than aggressive resemblance, in correspondence with the
fact that predaceous forms are as a rule much larger and much less
numerous than their prey.