476 Allen, Roosevelt on Concealing Coloration. |_bct. 



of leopards, tigers and other cats. My experience, in accord with 

 the experience of almost all other hunters and outdoor naturalists, 

 is that the cougar is of all our American big animals the one most 

 difficult to see and most rarely seen. The cougar's neutral-tinted, 

 nearly unicolored, countershaded coat, unquestionably has a con- 

 cealing quality, in the woods and among clay banks and rocks under 

 ordinary conditions; and for a long time I, in common with most 

 observers, accepted this as the chief element in explaining the way 

 in which the cougar escapes observation. But when I came to 

 think out the matter I realized that in many parts of its range the 

 landscape is in winter snow covered, and that a totally different 

 theory must be invoked for the cougar's invisibility when snow is on 

 the ground." After detailing his experiences with cougars under 

 these conditions he says : " This means that the cougar's coloration 

 was really an insignificant and practically negligible factor in its 

 concealment. The prime factors in keeping the cougar invisible 

 were its nocturnal habits, its caution and wariness, its sharp senses, 

 its wonderful ability to take even advantage of the scantiest cover, 

 and its power of lying indefinitely motionless and of advancing with 

 inconceivably noiseless and crouching stealth. . . Furthermore the 

 facts in the case of the cougar, an animal big enough to permit us 

 to be certain just what the facts are, enable us to appreciate the 

 real conditions which render it difficult to see so many smaller 

 creatures." 



The author presents his 'conclusions' (pp. 212-220) under 

 eleven general statements, which we have not space here even to 

 summarize. The ground is broadly covered, however, in statement 

 11, which we here transcribe: 



" (11) In short, as one might anticipate, when we deal with the 

 coloration of birds and mammals we deal not with any one cause, 

 but with a varied and complex tissue of causes. Forces have been 

 at work to develop concealing coloration in many species, and 

 countervailing forces have worked with greater or less strength to 

 counteract the influence of the first, in some species completely 

 succeeding and in others partially succeeding. Some birds and 

 mammals are so colored that normally or at certain important 

 times their coloration helps to obliterate them from the sight of 

 their foes. Others are so colored that their coloration under all 

 normal conditions and from every viewpoint, and at the most 



