516 APPENDIX E 



conceivably in the course of some city fight get into a coal-cellar 

 with a white-washed Hoor, and find that the "coloration pattern" 

 of his preposterous uniform was protective ; and really it would be 

 no more misleading to speak of such a soldier's dress as protective 

 compared to khaki than it is to speak of the Colobus monkey's 

 coloration as protective when compared with the colorations of the 

 duller-coloured monkeys of other species that are found in the 

 same forests. When hunting with the wild 'Ndorobo, 1 often 

 found it impossible to see the ordinary monkeys, which they tried 

 to point out to me, before the latter fled ; but I rarely failed to 

 see the Colobus monkey when it was pointed out. In the tops of 

 the giant trees, any monkey that stood motionless was to my eyes 

 difi^cult to observe; but nine times out of ten it was the dull- 

 coloured monkey, and not the black and white Colobus, which was 

 most difficult to observe. 1 questioned the 'Ndorobos as to which 

 they found hardest to see, and, rather to my amusement, at first 

 they could not understand my question, simply because they could 

 not understand failing to make out either ; but, when they did 

 understand, they always responded that the black and white 

 Colobus was the monkey easiest to see and easiest to kill. These 

 monkeys stretch nearly across Africa, from a form at one extremity 

 of the range which is almost entirely black, to a form at the other 

 extremity of the range which is mainly or most conspicuously white. 

 Of course it is quite impossible that both forms can be protec- 

 tively coloured ; and, as a matter of fact, neither is. 



I am not speaking of the general theory of protective coloration. 

 1 am speaking of certain phases thereof as to which I have made 

 observations at first-hand. I have studied the facts as regards big 

 game and certain other animals, and I am convinced that as 

 regards these animals the protective-coloration theory either does 

 not apply at all or applies so little as to render it necessary to 

 accept with the utmost reserve the sweeping generalizations of 

 Mr. Thayer and the jjrotective-coloration extremists. It is an 

 exceedingly interesting subject. It certainly seems that the theory 

 must apply as regards many animals ; but it is even more certain 

 that it does not, as its advocates claim, apply universally ; and 

 careful study and cautious generalizations are imperatively neces- 

 sary in striving to apply it extensively, while fanciful and im- 

 possible efforts to apply it where it certainly does not apply can 

 do no real good. It is necessary to remember that some totally 

 different principle, in addition to or in substitution for protective 

 coloration, must have been at work where totally different colora- 

 tions and colour patterns seem to bring the same results to the 

 wearers. The bear and the skunk are both catchers of small 

 rodents, and when the colour patterns of the back, nose, and 

 breast, for instance, are directly opposite in the two animals, there 



