The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-08-09 00:00:00

COLOUR IN ANIMALS.

Any one attending a zoological garden or noticing
any largb collection of animals, is at once struck by
the variety of colours, both of the plumage and hide
or skin. Some animals are highly coloured, others
have hues sombre and dark. What is the reason of
this? Why are animals coloured differently? What
is the use of any colouring? These questions can only
be answered by a consideration of the habits of the
various animals, the means provided for their obtain-
ing food and the weapons they have for defence.
The colouring of animals is to a large extent pro-
tective. It enables animals to hide from their
enemies, who would otherwise extinguish their species,
and in other instances, where they have means of
defence that warn other animals to keep away, they
are highly coloured, so that other animals are warned
to give them a wide berth. For instance, rats, mice,
bats and moles, which seek for food at night are dark,
of dusky hues, while in the light of day they conceal
themselves in their holes. Yet the skunk, which is a
nocturnal animal, has much white about it, and a
large white tail which it carries erect; but the
horrible odour it emits makes it universally dreaded,
and its conspicuous white tail is a signal flag to all
carnivorous animals not to attack it, which they
seldom do.
All the bears in the world are either brown or
black, except the polar bear, which is white. So are
most of the animals of the polar regions white—that
is, of the same colour as the snow and ice they in-
habit, which similarity of colouring is a means of
protection from their enemies, inasmuch as they are
not so readily seen. Perhaps the musk ox, or musk
sheep, which is of a dark brown colour, would seem
an exceiption, but the habits of the onimals explain
this. hey are gregarious, live in flocks, and this is
the means of their protection; hence, if one strays
away from the flock it is necessary that they be of a
dark colour, so that he can see his comrades at a
distance. The raven is another instance; he is black,
yet inhabits the regions of snow and ice; but he feeds
on carrion, and has no enemies that think his body
fit for food.
Armed insects are highly coloured, such as wasps
and bees. Their very high colouring shows to other
animals what they are, and their poison protects
them. Some insects have so hard a covering that
they are practically uneatable. These are frequently
highly coloured. Others can fly rapidly, and this is
a protection, so they are given a gaudy colouring.
like the swift-flying rose-chafer. Butterflies are
gaily coloured, but they are unfit for eating; even
when given to young turkeys they spit them out.
Insects are often founds on trees and leaves which
are the exact colour of the food they eat. This is a
protection. The voice of the tree-toad is heard
before the rain; yet to exactly is he the colour of the
limb on which he lies, that it is hard to find him.

Green caterpillars feed on green leaves, and their
very food serves to hide them from their enemies.
Certain insects called loopers can stick themselves
out rigidly like sticks, which they so much resemble
as to be taken for them. Green and brown cater-
pillars are greedily eaten by birds, and even by frogs,
lizards, and spiders, hence they generally feed at
night, and during the day remain motionless On. leaves
or twigs of the same colour as themselves. Bright
coloured caterpillars, however, are discarded by birds,
and always refused by frogs, lizards, and spiders, as
if they tasted bad to them.
Parrots that live in the dense foliage of green trees
are invariably green, and the birds of high coloured
plumage are tropical, where the colours of the flowers
and shrubs are brilliant. Birds that abound in the
region of deciduous trees are never green, but brown
or olive is the prevailing colour. This tint is 13,tat
perceptible among the leafless trees and bushes which
prevail for the greater portion of the year, when pro-
tection is so much needed. There is a butterfly called
the orange-tipped; when on the wing he is most con-
spicuous, but when in the evening he rests on the
wood-parsley he can scarcely be seen, so beautifully
do his colours blend with those on the flower-head of
the plant. So that, on the whole, the gorgeous colours
or the sombre shades with which various animals are
adorned, while beautiful, have a use to the animal
that is not mere display, but protection as well

VARIATIONS or THE PULSE.—The human pulse has
rather a wide range, but the general average may be
put about as follows : At birth, 140; at two years, 100;
at from sixteen to nineteen years, 80; at manhood,
75; old age, GO. There are, however, great variations
consistent with health. Napoleon's pulse is said to
have been only 44 in the minute. A case is also re-
lated of a healthy man of eighty-seven, whose pulse
was seldom over 30 during the last two years of his
life, and sometimes not more than 26. Another man
of eighty-seven years of age enjoyed good health and
spirits with a pulse of 20, and there is also on record
the curious instance of a man whose pulse in health
was never more than 45, and, to be consistent in his
inconsistency, when he had fever his pulse fell to 40.
instead of rising. as is usual

Tun Ivorty PLANT.—The ivory plant is a native of
the northern regions of South America, extending
just across the Isthmus of Panama, large groves of
it having been discovered in the province of that
name. It banishes all other vegetation from the soil
it has taken possession of. It has the appearance of
a stemless palm, and e,onsists of a graceful crown of
leaves, twenty feet long, of a delicate pale-green
colour, and divided like the plume of a feather into
from thirty to fifty pairs of long, narrow leaflets. It
is not really stemless, but the weight of the foliage
and the fruit is too much for the slender trunk, and
pulls it down to the ground, where it is seen like a
large, exposed root, stretching for a length of twenty
feet. The long leaves are employed by the Indians
to cover the roofs of their cottages. From the small,
size of the seeds, the largest not being more than r 4,6
inches in diameter, the vegetable ivory can be em-
ployed only in the manufacture of small articles, sucha
as beads. buttonr!, tts,fs. (to