water, and the dire fly-borne cattle diseases of Africa, would have no terror for them. They would be a great addition to the world's stock of domestic animals.

Where we came across eland they were drinking every twenty-four hours. But there seems to be no reason to doubt the fact that in certain desert regions eland, like giraffe and oryx, go many months without water. How this is possible for so huge and fat a beast, in a climate of such intolerable dryness and heat, I can not imagine. No problem is better worth the study of competent field-naturalists. The eland, like the roan antelope, and the full-grown buck Grant's gazelle, possesses a coat which harmonizes well with the general hue of the landscape in which it dwells. It lacks the bold face-markings of the roan, and the face-markings and body-stripes of the oryx, and therefore, in spite of its size, is perhaps a trifle less conspicuous than either. The thin stripes on its coat have not the slightest effect in either concealing or revealing it; seen sidewise, its body is neither more nor

gray, dry thorn scrub the eland is sometimes hard to make out from a distance, if

it is not switching its tail. But as a matter of fact it rarely stands still for any length of time without switching its tail; the only elands I ever saw in what might be called forest revealed themselves to us when a hundred yards off by the switching of their tails. I doubt whether the eland's color is of even the smallest use to it as against its natural foes. Wild dogs always hunt purely by scent, leopards only occasionally kill an eland calf; the lion is the only foe that need be considered. On the rare occasions when lions hunt by day they do sometimes use their eyes-Governor Jackson has described a party of lions hunting eland by sight. But, unless wounded, the eland. though far less conspicuous in color than zebra, hartebeest, or wildebeest, and even than oryx or roan, makes no more effort to hide than any one of these, its constant companions. While unwounded it never crouches or slinks, or seeks to take advantage of cover, like a bushbuck or oribi. A

herd rests like cattle, lying down or standing; and always there is some little play of ears or tail, sufficient to insure the attention of any beast of prey which is on the lookout in the neighborhood. Moreover, the elands lie down or stand resting during the heat of the day, when no beast of prey is abroad. In the morning and afternoon they are feeding; they then make no effort to hide, and are sure to be seen by any watchful foe which is trusting to its eyes for success. Ordinarily lion trust far more to nose than eyes, until close up, when the shade or markings of the coat become utterly unimportant. At night, especially on the very dark nights when the lion is boldest, probably his sense of smell is his only guide until he makes his final rush; and in any event on such a night all colors seem alike. Therefore, although the eland's coloring, like that of the wild ass or male Grant's gazelle, is probably more concealing than that of any of the other antelopes or of the zebras, it has no effect whatever on the animal's habits, and probably in actual practice is of no consequence to it, one way or the other, as regards its foes. At any rate the coloration is not a factor of

survival value. The stripes, which closet theorists have treated as of concealing value to the eland, are of no concealing use whatever. They are probably gradually disappearing; they diminish the farther the animals are found from the probable original centre of development in the middleAfrican forests; and in the form farthest from this, the South African form, which has certainly been the last to be differentiated, the stripes have completely disappeared. This of course means that they have no concealing value such as to make them in even the slightest degree a factor in securing through natural selection the survival of the wearer under the conditions of the existing environment. The eland is certainly less plentiful than the other antelopes which possess a more advertising coloration; and it is more shy, and, instead of seeking to elude observation, prefers to station itself where it can detect its foes at a distance and run off. If the color of its coat were of benefit to it, it would certainly act so as to get that benefit, and this it never does. Evidently its coloration is an entirely negligible factor so far as its survival is concerned.

WAS alone out on the Point trying to think what I was going to do with Grace Airley now I'd got her, for she had been telling me how we were to spend our honeymoon, and about the castles we were to buy, and had ended by touching me for her bridge debts; so I was thinking maybe I'd have to go to work, after all, when I looked out to sea just in time to see the dear old Drusilla rounding the Point.

But I had no more than said, "Well, I'll be damned!" to the Drusilla's heels than I heard a woman scream out my name, and, turning quickly, saw little Polly Beeson, one of the Airley maids. What had

scared her was more than I could guess, for there was never a soul in sight but herself and me; but she fainted dead away before I could ask her what was the matter. By the time I had got to her she had opened her eyes and raised up on one elbow.

"Drop in the grass! Then work your way over the bluff-under the roots that hang over. Get up under them-dig down into the sand and cover yourself with it-" Then she began to cry.

I said, "Whatever is the row?" and stood still, looking down at her. She struck at me like a cat for my slowness. "I tell you, get down! There'll be time enough to talk when you're hidden."