A first book in organic evolution

by D. Kerfoot Shute

In tropical America, in the localities where the poisonous genus Elaps is found so abundantly, are several genera of harmless snakes of other families, some species of which so closely resemble or mimic the poisonous species that they are distinguished from them with difficulty. The peculiar color patterns of the poisonous snakes serve as warning colors to snake-eating mammals and birds. The mimicking snakes by flying these danger-flags are protected.

In [Plate VI] Elaps is the venomous snake, and illustrates warning coloration; Erythrolamprus is the edible, non-venomous reptile that has acquired, through Natural Selection, a protective resemblance to Elaps, and illustrates mimicry. At the first glance these two snakes look very much alike; but a closer inspection will show that the detailed color patterns differ in the two cases. Elaps, though a very poisonous snake, has the reputation of not being venomous. This error has probably originated from the fact that it has a gentle disposition and mild temper, and also from the fact that no doubt it is frequently mistaken for the mimicking non-venomous species.

Both warning coloration and mimicry are interesting illustrations of adaptation to environment through Natural Selection; for the myriads of ancestral forms were continually giving slight variations in color patterns, some of which were useful to the creatures and others harmful. Those that harmonized mostly with the environment gave their possessors an advantage in the fierce struggle for life,—the struggle for food and place and safety; and procreating their kind age after age, led to the perfection of mimicry as we behold it to-day.

Coloration as Recognition Marks. In gregarious animals, whether herbivora or carnivora, and whether mammals or birds, a ready recognition of their own kind at a distance, in the dim twilight, or during rapid motion, is of the greatest use, and probably often leads to the preservation of life. Gregarious animals will not usually permit a stranger in their midst. So long as these animals keep together they are generally safe from enemies; but a single animal straggling off by itself may become an easy prey to enemies. In such cases it is of the highest importance to an animal that it should have every facility for quickly discovering its companions at any distance within the field of vision. Also to the young and inexperienced of each herd some means of easy recognition is of vital importance. Recognition marks also enable the sexes to identify their kind readily. The necessity for easy recognition probably is at the basis of the bilateral symmetry in the coloration of animals.[11] In the struggle for existence those gregarious creatures that have the best color patterns for recognition marks are the most likely to get the scattered members of a herd together with the greatest rapidity, and thus to save them from their enemies. The surviving members, transmitting their useful variations in recognition marks to their offspring, are thus able in the course of ages to bring into existence pronounced color patterns. Thus Natural Selection can account for much of the coloration in animals known as recognition marks.

One or two illustrations of recognition marks in creatures will be sufficient. A rabbit when alarmed and fleeing to its burrow displays a conspicuous, upturned white tail. The rest of the body is protectively colored. This conspicuous white surface of the upturned tail is a signal flag of danger. The rabbit mostly feeds during moonlight nights, or soon after sunset. The white upturned tails of alarmed rabbits serve as signals and guides to the feeble and young, and also to those at a more remote distance. Thus a number of rabbits, each following the one or two in front, are all able in the quickest manner to reach a place of safety.

The spring-bok has a white patch on the face and one on the sides. It also has a curiously well-marked white stripe above the tail. When the animal is at rest this last-mentioned white stripe is very nearly concealed by a fold of skin, but when it is in motion it comes into full view, like the upturned tail of the rabbit, and serves as a guide to friends. There are some animals inhabiting the Arctic regions that are not white,—they are not protectively colored. Such is the musk-sheep. This animal, though living in Arctic regions, is yet brown and conspicuous. Its safety depends upon its association in small herds. It is gregarious. Therefore it is of much more importance to this animal that it should be able to quickly recognize its companions at a distance than that it should be protectively colored and so concealed from its enemies. So long as they keep together in herds they are abundantly able to protect themselves. This is an exception to the rule of local color adaptation that proves the rule.

Sexual Selection. Among most backboned animals it is the rule that both sexes should be alike in color. This is especially true among the fishes, reptiles, and mammals. But in birds the diversity of sexual coloring is very frequent. It is among this class, therefore, that Sexual Selection can best be studied. One of the most fundamental characteristics of birds is the greater conspicuousness of coloration in the males. In the tropical regions especially are found the most striking examples of divergence in sexual color patterns. In humming birds, the pheasants, the peacocks, chatterers, tanagers, and birds of paradise, the females are exceptionally dull-colored and plain, while the male birds are gorgeously colored and conspicuously attractive. The male birds of paradise, for instance, are not only brilliantly colored, but also have remarkable gorgets, plumes, and crests; whereas the female paradise birds are without these decorations and as plain as our thrushes in their ornamental plumage ([Plate VIII]).

The splendor of plumage which characterizes the male pheasants is entirely wanting in the females. The intense crimsons and pure whites, the gorgeous purples and blues of the male chatterers contrast strikingly with the dull browns or olive greens of the females. The sober hues of the females have been accentuated by Natural Selection.[12] When the females were brooding on the eggs in their nests, those of them that had varied in the direction of conspicuousness would most readily be detected by their enemies, the hawks, and would be exterminated; but those that had quiet and dull ornamentation would most frequently escape discovery, and would pass successfully through the brooding season; thus living and transmitting their color patterns to posterity,—Natural Selection ever eliminating the conspicuous and preserving the sober-hued,—in the course of time the dull ornamentation of the females would become more and more pronounced.

Plate VIII.—Male and Female Paradise Birds (Paradisea minor). Illustrating the effects of Sexual Selection. The upper figure (male bird) is much more beautiful than the lower (female bird).