We will
now briefly pass in review the various characteristics and uses of the
colours which more generally prevail in nature; and having already
discussed those protective colours which serve to harmonise animals with
their general environment, we have to consider only those cases in which
the colour resemblance is more local or special in its character.
_Special or Local Colour Adaptations._
This form of colour adaptation is generally manifested by markings
rather than by colour alone, and is extremely prevalent both among
insects and vertebrates, so that we shall be able to notice only a few
illustrative cases. Among our native birds we have the snipe and
woodcock, whose markings and tints strikingly accord with the dead marsh
vegetation among which they live; the ptarmigan in its summer dress is
mottled and tinted exactly like the lichens which cover the stones of
the higher mountains; while young unfledged plovers are spotted so as
exactly to resemble the beach pebbles among which they crouch for
protection, as beautifully exhibited in one of the cases of British
birds in the Natural History Museum at South Kensington.
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