The Descent of Man

of Pallas.) states that in Siberia a change of this
nature occurs with the wolf, two species of
Mustela, the domestic horse, the Equus hemionus,
the domestic cow, two species of antelopes,
the musk- deer, the roe, elk, and reindeer.
The roe, for instance, has a red summer and a
greyish-white winter coat; and the latter may
perhaps serve as a protection to the animal
whilst wandering through the leafless thickets,
sprinkled with snow and hoar-frost. If the above-named
animals were gradually to extend
their range into regions perpetually covered
with snow, their pale winter-coats would probably
be rendered through natural selection,
whiter and whiter, until they became as white
as snow.
Mr. Reeks has given me a curious instance of an
animal profiting by being peculiarly coloured.
He raised from fifty to sixty white and brown
piebald rabbits in a large walled orchard; and
he had at the same time some similarly colou-