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The Descent of Man

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season; I may give as an additional instance the<br />

Calotes maria, which at this season has a bright<br />

red head, the rest <strong>of</strong> the body being green. (72.<br />

Gunther in 'Proceedings, Zoological Society,'<br />

1870, p. 778, with a coloured figure.)<br />

Both sexes <strong>of</strong> many species are beautifully coloured<br />

exactly alike; and there is no reason to<br />

suppose that such colours are protective. No<br />

doubt with the bright green kinds which live in<br />

the midst <strong>of</strong> vegetation, this colour serves to<br />

conceal them; and in N. Patagonia I saw a lizard<br />

(Proctotretus multimaculatus) which,<br />

when frightened, flattened its body, closed its<br />

eyes, and then from its mottled tints was hardly<br />

distinguishable from the surrounding sand. But<br />

the bright colours with which so many lizards<br />

are ornamented, as well as their various curious<br />

appendages, were probably acquired by<br />

the males as an attraction, and then transmitted<br />

either to their male <strong>of</strong>fspring alone, or to both<br />

sexes. Sexual selection, indeed, seems to have

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