508 APPENDIX E 



with birds, must be wholly independent of any benefit they give to 

 their possessors in the way of concealment. Mr. Thayer's pictures 

 in some cases portray such entirely exceptional situations or sur- 

 roundings that they are misleading — as, for instance, in his pictures 

 of the peacock and the male wood-duck. An instant's reflection is 

 sufficient to show that if the gaudily-coloured males of these two 

 birds are really protectively coloured, then the females are not, and 

 vice versa ; for the males and females inhabit similar places, and if 

 the elaborate arrangement of sky or water and foliage in which 

 Mr. Thayer has placed his peacock and wood-drake represented 

 (which they do not) their habitual environment, a peahen and 

 wood-duck could not be regarded as protectively coloured at all ; 

 whereas of course in reality, as everyone knows, they are ffir more 

 difficult to see than the corresponding males. Again, he shows a 

 chipmunk among twigs and leaves, to make it evident that the 

 white and black markings conceal it ; but a weasel, which lacks 

 these markings, would be even more difficult to see. The simple 

 truth is that in most woodland, mountain, and prairie surroundings 

 any small mammal that remains motionless is, unless very vividly 

 coloured, exceedingly apt to escape notice. I do not think that 

 the stripes of the chipmunk are of any protective value — that is, I 

 believe (and the case of the weasel seems to me to prove) that its 

 coloration would be at least as fully " protective "" without them. 

 The striped gophers and grey gophers seem equally easy to see ; 

 they live in similar habitats, and the stripes seem to have no 

 protective effect one way or the other. 



It is when Mr. Thayer and the other extreme members of the 

 protective coloration school deal with the big game of Africa 

 that they go most completely wide of the mark. For instance, 

 Mr. Thayer speaks of the giraffe as a sylvan mammal with a 

 checkered sun-fleck and leaf-coloured pattern of coloration, accom- 

 panied by complete obliterative shading, and the whole point of 

 his remark is that the giraffe's coloration " always maintains its 

 potency for obliteration.''' Now, of course, this means nothing 

 unless Mr. Thayer intends by it to mean that the giraffe's coloration 

 allows it to escape the observation of its foes. I doubt whether 

 this is ever under any circumstances the case — that is, I doubt 

 whether the girafl'e's varied coloration ever " enables " it to escape 

 observation save as the dark monochrome of the elephant, rhinoceros, 

 or buffalo may " enable " one of these animals to escape observation 

 under practically identical conditions. There is, of course, no 

 conceivable colour or scheme of colour which may not, under some 

 conceivable circumstances, enable the bearer to escape observation ; 

 but if such colouring, for once that it enables the bearer to escape 

 observation exposes the bearer to observation a thousand times, it 

 cannot be called protective. I do not think that the giraffes 



