The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1913-08-21
HABITS OF INSECTS NATURES SCHEME
Why Differences in Animals Are
Continually Perpetuated.
Color Proves Safeguard and Baby
Seals, White in the North, Become
Brown 90 They Drift Southwark.
Zebra's Stripes Protect Them.

Did it ever occur to you to wonder
why. as between animals of much the
same general form and size-say as
between the zebra, the horse and the
mule-there should exist such marked
differences. and differences which are
perpetuated, generation after genera
ton?
The problem which puzzled the early
scientists has come, within the last
few decades. to be quite we'll under
stood Felix j. Koch writes in Our
Dumb Animals. The answer is that
these changes are all part and parcel
Of natures great scheme for the pro-
lection and, in case of the wild crea-
lures, for enabling them to avoid their
enemies and to gain livelihood.
For example: There formerly
roamed the African deserts a little
creature much like the giraffe, but
with just normal neck. Here and
there he cantered over the desert,
feeding on the succulent leaves of the
palms that were within easy reach
One year blight fell on the palm
trees they withered and the leaves
dropped off, beginning with the lowest
and gradually running up to the top.
Along with their passing went the
food of the short-necked giraffes. By
and by there were only the top leaves
left to eat. The smaller animals could
not reach these and so persisted for
want of food. Only those giraffes
whose necks were long enough to
reach the leaves high up survived.
Now as provision for just that thing
it is one of natures inflexible laws
that not only does like produce like
but individual characteristics are &C
centuated. Here were only. the extra
long-necked giraffes left to interbreed
Naturally, only this sort would appear
among the young, and so the new
breed appeared with necks longer than
any giraffes had known before
Throughout nature one finds, there
fore, the gradual adaptation to locality
and conditions.
Every year on the coasts of Labra
dor and Newfoundland thousands OF
near-seal are slaughtered for their
hide, which is a substitute for shoe
leather The baby seal or pups" as
they are called, are snow white with
nothing that is grayish.
Were these baby seals the dull
brown or black of the adults and ca
vorting here and there on the ice
fields, don't you see, they would stand
out in relief Bears and other foes
would see them, make for them and
devour them. But against the white
ice the white seal pup is almost in
visible even at very close distance
BY and by, though, the ice on which
these babies are born has broken loose
and, caught in the currents, is drifting
southwark 1t meets the gulf stream
and melts. The baby seal must ther
put to sea. If, there, 1t were snowy
white object such as 1t was before
to be seen swimming in deep blue
waters, it's foes would spy it at once
and devour it forthwith. But by the
time the ice has come SO far south
as the gulf stream the babys coat hai
turned brown and he's safe.
How does this happen? Here is the
probable explanation. Once on a time
in a herd of seal, some few were
bit lighter colored than others. Nov
| in the course of time, the seals fel
afoul of their foes. The bear, let us
suppose. saw the darker skinned
babies and destroyed them, but the
lighter had the more chance to es
cape. So the lighter, only, were lef
to interbreed, and this seeming fault
of a white skin at birth became &C
centuated, perpetuated.
The American buffalo is a notable
specimen. See how that great broad
forehead is built to withstand the
gale that sweeps the prairies. Set
the shaggy growth just over the eyes
to protect, as he lowers the head
from the sand and dust that drive ovel
the plain Verify mother nature
equipped this child to withstand any
thing save the man-made bullet.
Look at the zebra, and in his mot
tied coat you see the shadows cas-
by palm fronds on the sands of his
native desert. Set in the edge o
the palms the baby and mother are
hard to tell from the wavering back
ground of shrubbery. And so nature
protects.
Throughout the anim3 kingdom
these adaptations stare one in The
face, so to speak. The wonderful Goa
of the deer, white in winter, making
him almost invisible against the
snow; the horns, in form and colol
like the branches Of trees-what bet
ter cloak could conceal him from un
friendly eyes?
Descend to the humber forms anC
on our trees you will find, if you lool
sharp, the walking-stick, a wee bit o
an insect that, for all the world, re
sembles a few twigs thrown together
On the bark, too, there may rest
butterfly or a night moth, with wings
so nearly the color of the wood tina
only when striped like shadows of III
desert it proceeds to stir does on'
recognize it as thing apart.