18; 
that immunity from attack with which it is generally 
credited. “ The arctic fox, the ermine, and the alpine 
hare,” says Mr. Wallace, “ change to white in winter only, 
because in summer white would be more conspicuous than 
any other colour, and therefore a danger rather than a 
protection.”* This is the assumption necessary in order 
to establish the proposition that winter white has been 
brought about by Natural Selection. But in order that 
winter white should be a protection to animals, it is essen 
tial that snow should remain upon the ground during the 
winter months, and that winter white should only be 
assumed by animals during the season when the landscape 
is covered with snow. But neither of these conditions are 
present in the actual world of nature. The winter white of 
animals is not confined to countries in which the snow is on 
the ground constantly during a given period. There is no 
such definite period in some countries, and yet the animal 
is white through the winter months. “The stoat always 
becomes white in the alpine districts of Scotland, frequently 
in the North of England, occasionally in the Midlands, 
and Mr. Couch has seen two white stoats in Cornwall.”f 
It may be said that this is a characteristic which has 
become fixed in the race. That might account for the 
present condition of the species. But if the species arose 
through the elimination of the conspicuous colours, and if 
that is a constant law of nature, then it ought to have been 
exterminated by the same principle, if it persists in main 
taining a conspicuous white in a country which is only 
occasionally covered with snow. In New Brunswick the 
winter lasts from the middle of December till the middle 
of March,I but in New Brunswick the American hare 
* Contributions, p. jo. 
t Poulton. pp. 101-2. 
i Chambers' Encyclopaedia.