Vol. XXIX1 



1912 J Allen, The Concealing Coloration Question. 489 



REMARKS ON THE CASE OF ROOSEVELT VS. THAYER, 



WITH A FEVv^ INDEPENDENT SUGGESTIONS ON 



THE CONCEALING COLORATION QUESTION. 



BY FKANCIS H. ALLEN. 



Colonel Roosevelt in his recent paper on 'Revealing and 

 Concealing Coloration in Birds and Mammals ' ^ makes an attack 

 on the work of Messrs. Abbott H. and Gerald H. Thayer and sounds 

 the slogan of 'common sense' as against the Messrs. Thayer's 

 'wild absurdities,' as he is pleased to term some of the views set 

 forth in their book. Other persons have spoken approvingly 

 of the sound 'common sense' of Roosevelt's paper. Now common 

 sense is an excellent thing; I might go farther and call it indis- 

 pensable; and yet, with the greatest respect for it, we must admit 

 that it has its limitations. In Columbus's day common sense 

 declared that the world was flat. More recently it carefully 

 protected the consumptive from 'night air.' And, if I mistake 

 not, it is still an obstacle to the spread of scientific education. It 

 is hardly safe, I think, to trust to common sense alone to settle the 

 question of concealing coloration or any other scientific question. 

 It is science that must settle it, though she must call on both com- 

 mon sense and imagination to help her, — imagination as well as 

 common sense, for one without the other would be only a hindrance. 

 Any science that goes deeper or soars higher than the mere accumu- 

 lation of facts must make use of the imagination.^ This is a truism, 

 of course, but it seems necessary to insist upon it a little under the 

 circumstances. 



And we must also face the fact that it is not alwa3^s the best, 

 i. e. the most accurate and diligent, observer that makes discover- 



1 Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, Vol. XXX, Art. viii, 

 pp. 119-231, New York, August 2.3, 1911. 



2 " My success as a man of science, whatever this may have amounted to, has 

 been determined as far as I can judge, by complex and diversified mental 

 quaUties and conditions. Of these, the most important have been- — the love of 

 science — unbounded patience in long reflecting over any subject — industry in 

 observing and collecting facts — and o fair share of invention as well as of common 

 tense." — Charles Darwin. (The italics are the quoter's.) 



