COLORATION 107 



its stealthy, skulking ways, and its habit of clinging to 

 and taking advantage of cover, are such that it would be 

 difficult to detect anyhow. The same observations apply 

 to the dikdiks. The Chanler reedbuck behaves much like 

 the klipspringer; its coloration is more revealing. 



The steinbok offers an interesting problem when com- 

 pared with other buck of the same size but different habits, 

 such as the klipspringer and Tommy gazelle. The klip- 

 springer lives among rocks; its coloration tends to har- 

 monize with its surroundings; and with the possible excep- 

 tion of the duiker it is the only one of all the African 

 antelopes in which it seems as if the countershading may 

 add to the concealing quality of the coloration. But, com- 

 pared with the steinbok, the klipspringer does not hide at 

 all; it is a noisy little buck, continually uttering a shrill 

 whistle of alarm or curiosity; it trusts for safety to its 

 vigilance and its ability as a rock-climber. The Tommy 

 never tries to hide. It lives on the bare, open flats, and trusts 

 to its vigilance and speed for protection. The steinbok, on 

 the other hand, which lives on the grassy flats and among 

 bushes, both on the plains and along the hillsides, is a 

 skulker and hider; yet its coloration is not concealing. 

 Its bright-red coat was advertising under all the condi- 

 tions under which we observed it; nor did we anywhere see 

 a normal background with which its coloration would have 

 harmonized. Nevertheless, it trusted almost exclusively to 

 concealment for safety. Nor did it merely use as a screen 

 thick cover so impenetrable that through it no coloration 

 could be made out. It continually endeavored to hide in 

 very scanty cover; we often found it practically concealed 

 in tufts of rank grass or behind or alongside of some small 



