vol. xxvnn 



1911 J Barbour and Phillips, Concealing Coloration Again. 179 



CONCEALING COLORATION AGAIN. 



BY THOMAS BARBOUR AND JOHN C. PHILLIPS. 



Mr. Abbot H. Thayer's book on 'Concealing Coloration,' and 

 his various contributions to the subject which have appeared 

 published in scattered articles, have awakened an interest in this 

 fascinating field of observation which has never been known 

 before this time. If Mr. Thayer's notices had been confined to 

 studies of countershading, which he has so excellently demon- 

 strated, and of similar phenomena, we should have been glad to 

 subscribe most heartily to the immense importance of what 

 he has shown us. Mr. Thayer, however, along with most other 

 enthusiasts in a field with which they can be but partially familiar, 

 has gone too far and claimed too much. 



In his book we have the view elaborated that all organisms, or 

 nearly all, are adapted exclusively as far as external features go to 

 concealment in the environment in which they are found. Mr. 

 Thayer does not even touch on the evolution of color and patterns. 

 He simply says (page 36), "We ourselves attribute all such work 

 (meaning here color patterns and normal backgrounds) to natural 

 selection, pure, simple, and omnipotent." 



Of the several notices which have appeared reviewing Mr. 

 Thayer's work, only two have been in any way critical. Messrs. 

 Dewar and Finn, on page 184 of their book, 'The Making of Spe- 

 cies,' comment at length, saying "even as Wallace out-Darwins 

 Darwin, so does Mr. Abbot Thayer. . . .out-Wallace Wallace. 

 That gentleman seems to be of opinion that all animals are crypti- 

 cally, or, as he calls it, concealingly or obliteratively colored. Even 

 those schemes of color which have hitherto been called conspicu- 

 ous are, he asserts, 'purely and potently concealing' when looked 

 at properly, that is to say, with the eye of an artist." They con- 

 tinue, after taking up one or two of Thayer's special cases : " There 

 is something in this theory of obliterative coloration. Anyone 

 can see, by paying a visit to the South Kensington Museum, that 

 an animal which is of a lighter coloration below than above is 

 less conspicuous in a poor light than it would be were it uniformly 



