26o 



Bird - Lore 



are so colored that normally or at cer- 

 tain important times their coloration 

 helps to obliterate them from the sight 

 of their foes. Others are so colored that 

 their coloration under all normal con- 

 ditions and from every viewpoint, and 

 at the most critical periods of their 

 lives, tends to reveal them to their foes. 

 In others the coloration is of little con- 

 sequence, one way or the other. Birds 

 and mammals living under precisely 

 the same conditions have totally different 

 types of coloration, and display totally dif- 

 ferent traits and habits when seeking to 

 escape from enemies or to capture prey. 

 No universal laws can be laid down. 

 Tentatively, it is possible to give adher- 

 ence to the conclusions which I have 

 sketched in loose outline above. We know 

 that man}- birds and mammals are 

 concealingly colored. It is hard to say, 

 at least in some cases, whether this con- 

 cealing coloration has been produced by 

 natural selection, or whether, however 

 produced, it has merely then been taken 

 advantage of by the animals, which 

 have conformed their habits thereto, 

 so as to get the utmost beneiit from it. 

 In many birds and mammals, se.xual 

 selection or some similar principle has 

 completely obscured in one sex the work- 

 ings of the law which tends to produce 

 concealing coloration. In manj- other 

 birds and mammals, both se.xes are ad- 

 vertisingly colored, and whatever be the 

 cause that has produced this adver- 

 tising coloration it is evident that the 

 circumstances of their lives are such 

 that their habits and traits of mind are 

 such as to render the question of con- 

 cealing coloration a negligible element 

 in their development. 



"The species of birds and mammals 

 with a complete obliterative, or conceal- 

 ing, or protective, coloration, are few 

 in number compared to those which 

 possess (either all the time, or part of 

 the time, or in one se.x for all the time 

 or part of the time) a conspicuous or 

 revealing or advertising coloration, and 

 to those in which the coloration is neither 

 especially advertising nor especially con- 



cealing. As regards the great majority 

 of the species, the coloration, whether 

 concealing or not, is of slight import- 

 ance from the standpoint of jeoparding 

 or preserving the bird's or mammal's 

 life, compared to its cunning, wariness, 

 ferocity, speed, ability to take advan- 

 tage of cover, and other traits and habits, 

 and compared to the character of its 

 surroundings. 



"So much for the conclusions to which, 

 it seems to me, our present knowledge 

 of the subject points. But the most 

 important conclusion is that as yet we 

 do not know enough to be able to explain 

 all, or anything like all, the different 

 kinds of coloration and their probable 

 origins; and that we are not as yet by 

 any means in a position to say with an}' 

 certainty, in reference to large classes of 

 birds and mammals, whether they do 

 or do not possess a concealing coloration. 

 We can say with certainty that hundreds 

 of birds and mammals possess a revealing, 

 and other hundreds a concealing color- 

 ation; after even a slight effort to look 

 at the facts honestly there is no doubt on 

 this point; and, after such effort has once 

 been made, it is as idle to discuss whether 

 for instance Flamingoes, Spoonbills, 

 Ravens, Egrets, Red-headed Woodpeck- 

 ers, Scissor-tailed Kingbirds, Yellow- 

 headed Blackbirds, Cormorants, prong- 

 bucks, skunks, sable antelopes, are con- 

 cealingl}- colored, as it would be to dis- 

 cuss whether the world is flat, or whether 

 every extinct and existing "species" 

 came into being by a special act of 

 creation." 



While we believe, with Mr. Roosevelt, 

 that many animals rely on other factors 

 than color to aid them in escaping from 

 their enemies or catching their prey, we 

 feel that he has underrated the import- 

 ance of the part placed by color, and 

 particularh' counter-shading, in conceal- 

 ing an animal from its foes or food. 

 His paper, however, cannot fail to arouse 

 widespread interest, particularly among 

 field naturalists, who, whether or not 

 the}' accept Mr. Roosevelt's views, can- 

 not fail heartily to endorse his oft-repeated 



