PROTRCTIVK COI.OHATION 509 



coloration exposes it to observation on tiie part of its toes; I tliink 

 that it simply has no effect whatsoever. The giraffe never trusts 

 to escaping observation ; its sole thought is itself to obsei've any 

 possible foe. At a distance of a few hundred yards, the colour 

 pattern becomes indistinct to the eye. and the animal appears of a 

 nearly uniform tint, so that any benefit given by the colour pattern 

 must be comparatively close at hand. On the very rare occasions 

 when beasts of prey — that is, lions — do attack giraffes, it is usually 

 at night, when the coloration is of no consequence ; but even by 

 dav'liffht I should really doubt whether any i^iraffe has been saved 

 from an attack by lions owing to its coloration allowing it to 

 escape observation. It is so big, and so (jueerly shaped, that any 

 trained eyes detect it at once, if within a reasonable distance ; it 

 only escapes observation when so far off that its coloration does 

 not count one way or the other. There is no animal which will 

 not at times seem invisible to the untrained eyes of the average 

 white hunter, and any beast of any shape or any colour standing or 

 lying motionless, under exceptional circumstances, may now and 

 then escape observation. The elephant is a much more truly 

 sylvan beast than the giraffe, and it is a one-coloured beast, its 

 coloration pattern being precisely that which Mr. Thayer points 

 out as being most visible. Kut I have spent over a minute in 

 trying to see an elephant not fifty yards off, in thick forest, my 

 black companion vainly trying to show it to me; I have had just 

 the same experience with the similarly coloured rhinoceros and 

 buffalo when standing in the same scanty bush that is affected by 

 giraffes, and with the rhinoceros also in open plains where there 

 are ant-hills. It happens that I have never had such an experience 

 with a giraffe. Doubtless such experiences do occur with giraffes, 

 but no more frecjuently than with elephant, rhinoceros, and buffalo ; 

 and in my own experience I found that I usually made out giraffes 

 at considerably larger distances than I made out rhinos. The 

 buffalo does sometimes try to conceal itself, and, Mr. Thayer to 

 the contrary notwithstanding, it is then much more difficult to 

 make out than a giraffe, because it is much smaller and less oddly 

 shaped. The buffalo, by the way, really might be benefited by 

 protective coloration, if it possessed it, as it habitually lives in 

 cover, and is often preyed on by the lion ; whereas the giraffe is 

 not protected at all by its coloration, and is rarely attacked by 

 lions. 



Elephants and rhinoceroses occasionally stand motionless, wait- 

 ing to see if they can place a foe, and at such times it is possible 

 they are consciously seeking to evade observation. But the girafl'e 

 never under any circumstances tries to escape observation, and I 

 doubt if, practically speaking, it ever succeeds so far as wild men or 

 wild beasts that use their eyes at all are concerned. It stands 



