Contributions to the theory of natural selection. A series of essays ... By Alfred Russel Wallace ...

52 AMIMICRY, AND OTHER PPOTECTIVE
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.
Special Modifications of Colour.
The conformity of tint which has been so far shown
to exist between animals and their habitations is of
a 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 upon 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 besides
the lion and tiger, almost all the other large cats