100 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 



cervines, and other grass-eaters, and the big felines, canines, 

 and other flesh-eaters, in their native haunts. As regards 

 big mammals the theory is certainly untenable. Not only 

 are most big mammals not concealingly colored, but in most 

 of the cases where the concealing coloration exists it confers 

 no advantage on the possessor, because of the overwhelm- 

 ingly superior importance of such matters as bodily power 

 and habit. 



Probably the most effectual concealing-coloration pat- 

 terns among big mammals, under the average conditions of 

 actual environment, and at the crises of their lives, when 

 they prey or are preyed on, are the countershaded khaki or 

 tawny brown of the lion and cougar and the countershaded 

 gray of the ass, wild or tame. The lion and cougar we have 

 studied with care when wild; we have never seen the wild 

 ass; but the tame ass and feral ass, colored in substantially 

 the same manner, we observed under natural conditions on 

 the Western plains. Among the horses, cattle, and asses 

 out on the range, observed under all weather conditions at 

 all seasons, and by day and night, the gray countershaded 

 donkeys were on the average the most difficult to see. Next 

 came the dun or claybank horses, which were not counter- 

 shaded; usually such a horse was at night almost or quite 

 as inconspicuous as a donkey, except for the size. Then 

 came the bay, brown, and red horses and cattle ; and finally 

 the black and white, which, under almost all circumstances, 

 by day and by night, were the most conspicuous. At cer- 

 tain times at night the donkeys were practically invisible, 

 even when very close, until they moved. 



In Africa, of the big game of the plains and the thin 

 forest or scrub which we observed, the eland, big gazelle, 



