The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-08-02
POPULAR LECTURES
IN PHYSICAL SCIENCE.
VI. COLOR IN NATURE.
By A. S. PACKARD. NJ. D., PHI. d.

! OuI dlleuliOH III etilu
afford an amending charm throughout
life. Savages deck their bodies with
gaudy blossoms and limitations OF
bright flowers, or the feathers of bril-
iantly colored birds adorn the hats and
bonnets of women in all classes of So
ciety. With little doubt the beautiful
colors of flowers. shells, insects and
birds have made them the favorite sub
ject of study by naturalists. Our most
costly and luxuriant works in botany
and zoology are monographs on bright
ly colored plants, butterflies and birds,
and these beautiful creatures have led
many to the study of Nlture who would
otherwise have been Indifferent to the
beauty of the living things around
them.
1t was not until Darwin, Wallace
and others began to speculate and phi
Josephine on the uses TO the animals
| themselves of these bright colorS that
the subject of color in nature was
| taken up and the matter seriously dls-
cussed We are even told by these nat
uralists that animals are protected by
| a certain style of colcration. When a
moth or butterfly is assimilated in color
| to the flower or tree or other object on
| which it may rest, it escapes the notice
of insectivorous birds. Hence the in
sects owe their lives to the color OF
their bodies or to the arrangement or
the stripes or spots with which they
are ornamented. Thus the zebra is so
striped that herds of them running or
turning rapidly about in the night are
rendered practically invisible by their
black stripes, so that they, in many
cases, though of course not always
escape the attack of lions and other
carniVora. Other animals do not so
much wear a protective style of dress
| as one which serves to warn their enc
] hot hoy q - n d.
tasting. The skunk is deep black, with
conspicuous snow-white bands, render
| ing il distinctly visible in the darkest
night so that dogs and wild cats allow
| it to go scot free. Such style on col
! grafton is called warning as in such
animals their very marked hues serve
to warn off their natural enemies. The
great majority of frogs are green, and
multitudes are snapped up and swal-
| lowed by herens, fowl and other olrds.
/ In Nicaragua, among many frogs OF the
/ ordinary style of celebration, there is
one little species found about planta-
| tions which is brilliantly marked with
red and blue lines and spots. 1t was
| observed that hens and ducks would
not touch them, owing to their bad
taste So it is with many kinds ~of
caterpillars; the most gayly marked
| ones are, in general, not eaten by olros,
| owing to their bad taste. The BIRDS
recognize and pass them by, do not
waste their time on them, but eat I'M
mense numbers of plain green worms,
which are more palatable.
Thus il is that animals are protected
by their style of coloration, or from
mimicking or resembling other insects
which are distasteful, while vast num-
bers of species, perhaps, owe their very
existence to their similarity in hue TO
the ground they live in, or to the Pc
,-Irft, Of ha a
or parts of the leaves or flowers OF their
food plants.
1t is even held by Wallace, Lubbock
and others, that the forms and colors
of flowers, especially the irregular ones,
like beans and peas, are due to the WIS
its of bees and other insects, attracted
to them by their colors.
This adaptation in color to the ground
they live on is well Illustrated by the
Arctic animals, so many of which are
white 1t is thus with the polar bear,
which is white throughout the year.
Its white coat conceals it from obser-
vations of the seals lying on foe ice
so that il can creep up to them unoo-
served. On the other hand the Arctic
fox, hare and ptarmigan, or at least
the latter, harmonic in summer with
the color of the ground, but when win
ter approaches and the ground is COW
cred with snow they change to white.
1t is so with our common American hare
or rabbit which is white in winter in
the northern states here there is
snow. but not farther south where the
snow does not lie long. Desert animals,
insects, reptiles, birds and many mann
mails are brown and dull in hue, eX-
actly agreeing with the color of the
rocks and sands among which they
live: so also on the light sand beaches
of Cape Cod a species of locust is of
the same faded out tint.
AS 10 the cause OF protective mimicry,
il is held by Wallace and other eX-
IRENE Darwinians that all these cases
of protective mimicry are due to nat
ural selection alone and to no other
physical cause. This extreme view has
been questioned, and there is at pres
ent considerable difference of opinion
regarding the causes of adaptive col
Grafton.
But before we discuss the hypothesis
as to how and why colors are adaptive
and protective let us inquire how col
ors are produced in organic beings. 1t
is of course most natural in discussions
as to the uses and final causes of this
or that style of coloration, that the
more philosophical and careful students
should want to know just how colors
originate and should then CLEAN more
facts bearing on the matter. When
these subjects are fairly well worked
out, we shall be in better condition to
speculate as to the uses to the animal
of this or that style of marking and as
to its exact mode of operation.
At the outset it is most probable that
owing to the general colors and ar
raneement of MARKINGS of this or that
species of animal it is enabled to re-
tain its hold on life. There are many
species which differ chiefly in slight
educational features, whose whole ex-
istence is apparently dependent on such
characters, so that of course the sub
ject is one of prime Importance. Color
in nature may be said to be one of the
burning questions in modern biol
ogy.
The variety of colors in birds is al
coloring is protective, not only in the
cases of the snowy owl ind ptarmigan.
but in those living in deserts and on
the western plains. Nearly all the hen
and partridge family or the gallinace-
Gus birds, harmonic in hue with the |
ground and are thus in some degree
protected from the attacks of hawks |!
and eagles. In the pheasants the birds |
of paradise only the females are thus |
protected. the brilliantly colored males !
being also adorned with crests, plumes |
or long tails of varied hues. Thus deck |
ed they are thought to attract the at |
tention of the other sex. This is also !
the case with the males of certain spi- |
ders, which are both grotesque and |
gayly ornamented and ii has been |
proved by watching their antics that |
these colors are markings and court |
ship colors." Another kind of marking |
is seen in the shore birds, such as plo- |
snIa ftza 10, Il