PROTECTIVE COEOHA'PIOX ,519 



elusive of creatures, one of the most difficult to see, either by the 

 hunter who follows it or by the animal on which it preys. But 

 the cougar is found in every kind of country — in northern pine- 

 woods, in thick tropical forests, on barren j)lains and among- rocky 

 mountains. Mr. Thayer in his introduction states that " one may 

 read on an animaFs coat the main facts of his habits and habitat, 

 without ever seeing him in his home." It would be interestino; to 

 know how he would apply this statement to the cougar, and, if he 

 knew nothing about the animal, tell from its coat which specimen 

 lived in a Wisconsin pine-forest, which among stunted cedars in 

 the Rocky Mountains, which on the snow-line of the Andes, which 

 in the forest of the iVmazon, and which on the plains of Patagonia. 

 With which habitat is the cougar's coat supposed especially to 

 harmonize ? A lioness is coloured like a cougar, and in Africa we 

 found by actual experience that the very differently-coloured 

 leopard and lioness and cheetah and serval were, when in precisely 

 similar localities, ecjually difficult to observe. It almost seems as 

 if with many animals the matter of coloration is immaterial, so 

 far as concealment is concerned, compared with the ability of the 

 animal to profit by cover and to crouch motionless or slink 

 stealthily along. 



Ajjain, there seems to be much truth in Mr. Thayer's statement 

 of the concealing (piality of moNt mottled snake-skins. Ikit 

 Mr. Thayer does not touch on the fact that in exactly the same 

 localities as those where these mottled snakes dwell, there are often 

 snakes entirely black or brown or green, and yet all seem to get 

 along equally well, to escape ecjually well from their foes, and prey 

 with equal ease on sn)aller animals. In Africa, the two most 

 common poisonous snakes we found were the black cobra and the 

 mottled j)uff-adder. If the coloration of one was that best suited 

 for concealment, then the reverse was certainly true of the colora- 

 tion of the other. 



But perhaps the climax of Mr. Thayer's theory is reached when 

 he suddenly apj)lies it to human beings, saying: "Among the 

 aboriginal human races, the various war-paints, tattooings, head 

 decorations, and appendages, such as the long, erect mane of eagle 

 feathers worn by North American Indians — all these, whatever 

 purposes their wearers believe they serve, do tend to obliterate 

 them, precisely as similar devices obliterate animals." Now, this 

 simply is not so, and it is exceedingly difficult to understand how 

 any man trained to proper scientific observation can believe it to 

 be so. The Indian, and the savage generally, have a marvellous 

 and wild-beast- like knack of concealinu" themselves. I have seen 

 in Africa 'Ndorobo hunters, one clad in a white blanket and one in 

 a red one, coming close toward ele})hants, and yet, thanks to their 

 skill, less apt to be observed than I was in dull-coloured garments. 



