When the morning light comes, they creep down the stem of the food plant, and lie concealed among the thick herbage and dry sticks and leaves, near the ground, and it is obvious that under such circumstances the brown color really becomes a protection. What would you do if you were a big caterpillar? Why, like most other defenseless creatures, you would feed by night, and lie concealed by day. Let us see, then, whether the habits of the insect will throw any light upon the riddle. This probably makes the caterpillar even more conspicuous among the green leaves than would otherwise be the case. The next point is the color of the mature caterpillars, some of which are brown.
LONG PARAGRAPHS SKIN
Hence, without exception, the upper plumage of every bird, and also the fur of all the smaller mammals and the skin of all the snakes and lizards, is of one uniform sand color.” “Indeed,” says Canon Tristram, “in the desert, where neither trees, brushwood, nor even undulation of the surface afford the slightest protection to its foes, a modification of color assimilated to that of the surrounding country is absolutely necessary. Thus, for instance, the lion, the antelope, and the wild donkey are all sand-colored. The blue harmonizes with the water, and the bird as it darts along the stream looks almost like a flash of sunlight.ĭesert animals are generally the color of the desert. The kingfisher itself, though so brightly colored, is by no means easy to see. There are, however, not a few cases in which vivid colors are themselves protective. Perhaps it may be said that if coloring is mainly protective, there ought to be but few brightly colored animals. The color of animals is by no means a matter of chance it depends on many considerations, but in the majority of cases tends to protect the animal from danger by rendering it less conspicuous. Adapted from "The Colors of Animals" by Sir John Lubbock in A Book of Natural History (1902, ed.
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