Pagan races of the Malay Peninsula - Sabrizain.org

ENVIRONMENT
either to drink, or to feed on shell-fish, at ebb-tide in the heat of
the day, are completely deceived, and not infrequently pay the
penalty for their want of care in adventuring too near their lurking
enemy, by being swept into the water after the manner described
in the Besisi jungle songs, by one swoop of the crocodile's lashing
tail.
On the other hand, the grey-blue "slaty" colour of the
elephant, buffalo, rhinoceros, adult tapir, and wild boar, which (with
the possible exception of the elephant, though it too may at least be
described as being to a large extent a water-animal) very closely
matches the colour of the forest-mud in which they disport them-
selves during the heat of the tropical noonday, is clearly intended to
afford them whatever protection may be possible when they are
immersed in their wallow, and for the time being, therefore, entirely
defenceless, and is therefore protective. Similarly the piebald colour-
ing of what is called the striped squirrel, and (as Ridley has pointed
out) the striped and spotted skin of the young tapir, roe-deer, and wild
boar, with the prevalence of russets and chestnut browns, browns
and greys, among many species of deer, squirrels, smaller monkeys,
and wild dogs, are in various ways admirably adapted for the protec-
tion of the species, the browner shades in particular being very
difficult to see in the dusk of the evening, which is the time when
the majority of these animals seek their food. A still more interest-
ing case is that of the white fauna of the immense limestone caves
of the Peninsula, of which the Batu caves in Selangor, and the
Biserat caves of Ulu Patani, are well-known examples. These caves
are frequented by myriads of bats, which produce deep deposits of
guano, and among the fauna which live either upon the bats or the
guano, are a white snake, a white rat, and even a white cockroach !
Among the apes and monkeys (especially the larger ones) which,
owing to their extreme agility and strength are in little need of any
specially protective colouring, the correspondence of colour to
environment is less marked ; it may, however, be worth pointing
out that the spectacled monkey {^Senmopithecus obsciirus) is called
" lotong " by the Malays, who have evidently observed the close
correspondence of its colour to the bark of the immense forest-tree
called "jelotong" {Dyera Matngayi, D. costulatd), which abounds
in the forest where it lives.
In the cases we have mentioned the protective or " strategic "
colouring of the animal, when once modified, has been permanent
but the Peninsula yields more than one example of an animal which
can change its colouring from time to time for the purpose of
still more effective concealment. Such are the " sumpah-sumpah "
{Calotes), which, though not a true cham^eleon, has yet received
that name from its sharing the chamasleon's most remarkable
characteristic, and in a lesser degree, certain tree-lizards and tree-
;