The Descent of Man

have been a great advantage to the lion and
puma, from the open nature of their usual
haunts, to have lost their stripes, and to have
been thus rendered less conspicuous to their
prey; and if the successive variations, by which
this end was gained, occurred rather late in life,
the young would have retained their stripes, as
is now the case. As to deer, pigs, and tapirs,
Fritz Muller has suggested to me that these
animals, by the removal of their spots or stripes
through natural selection, would have been less
easily seen by their enemies; and that they
would have especially required this protection,
as soon as the carnivora increased in size and
number during the tertiary periods. This may
be the true explanation, but it is rather strange
that the young should not have been thus protected,
and still more so that the adults of some
species should have retained their spots, either
partially or completely, during part of the year.
We know that, when the domestic ass varies
and becomes reddish-brown, grey, or black, the