180 Barbour and Phillips, Concealing Coloration Again. [April 



colored .... To this extent has Mr. Thayer made a valuable contri- 

 bution to zoological science. But when he informs us that obliter- 

 ative coloration is a universal attribute of animal life, we feel sorely 

 tempted to poke fun at him. We would ask all those who believe 

 in the universality of obliterative coloration to observe a flock of 

 rooks wending their way to their dormitories at sunset." 



Mr. Roosevelt, in Appendix E of his 'African Game Trails,' has 

 disposed effectually of the dicta regarding the invisibility of the 

 giraffe, zebra, and a host of other conspicuous beasts which have 

 only to fear destruction from animals that hunt by scent alone. 



Without any desire, however, to poke fun at Mr. Thayer, we may 

 now consider a few of his important cases. We do this seriously, 

 knowing full well that we see not with the eye of an artist, and that 

 we shall probably be more pitied than blamed for what we write. 

 We are, however, far from convinced as to how valuable an attri- 

 bute this artistic eye really is; and are inclined to wonder whether, 

 from a scientific point of view, a more open-minded conservatism 

 would not be more persuasive in the end. 



When Mr. Thayer says: "The color relations of earth, sky, 

 water, and vegetation are practically the same the world over, and 

 one may read in any animal's coat the main facts of his habits 

 and habitat without ever seeing him in his home," it is in just this 

 sort of thing that he has gone furthest wrong. The Peacock which 

 he depicts merged in a jungle of varied greenery and blue sky is, 

 as every field naturalist who has seen the Peacock at home well 

 knows, a bird quite as often of the open fields and bare hillsides 

 as of the jungle. The bird, for all his supposed protective mimi- 

 cry, is safer in the open land, or sitting, as one so often sees him, 

 on the dry top of a dead tree. Here he can see clearly all about 

 him, better than if he were in the jungle, where prowling beasts 

 of prey might follow him by scent — which they probably do far 

 more often than by sight — and so quite easily find and destroy 

 him. 



Again, Birds of Paradise are shown in Plate VI as disporting 

 themselves in a forest of waving palms, and amidst a general 

 environment which it is hard to believe a visitor to the jungle has 

 ever drawn. In Papua the male Birds of Paradise may usually 

 be seen, — and heard too, — from bare tops among the tallest 



