MY SOMALI BOOK 225 



what the theory of protective colouration would lead 

 us to expect. 



And I can vouch for the fact that the lesser kudu, 

 instead of endeavouring to seek safety in flight, prefers 

 rather to elude observation, as an animal whose colour- 

 ing is mainly protective might be expected to do. 

 Though their average haunts are different, I have seen 

 both or3^x and lesser kudu in the same type of bush, 

 and the striped kudu is certainly more difficult to 

 detect than the uniformly coloured body of the oryx. 



Mr. Selous lays great stress on the undoubted fact 

 that an animal must move to live, while it is only in a 

 state of quiescence that inconspicuous colouration can 

 be of any value. Quite true, but it has never been 

 pretended that a protectively coloured animal is 

 invisible always or under all conditions ; that would 

 mean that no lion w^ould ever obtain a meal ! There 

 is no doubt that the animals which most need protection 

 are those which, living in bush, can be most easily 

 approached under cover by an unseen carnivore, and 

 these are the animals which in fact are found to have 

 acquired in greatest degree the habit of keeping still 

 on hearing or scenting an enemy. 



But let us take an example where Mr. Selous has, 

 as I said, in some measure proved his case — the zebra. 

 Here we have an animal which is in the main a denizen 

 of the plains, but is often found in more or less open 

 jungle. Probably while sometimes frequenting jungle 

 in the neighbourhood of the plain by day, it seeks open 

 country by night, as I have found the aoul to do. Its 

 principal foe is the lion, an almost entirely nocturnal 

 animal. Its colouring moreover is, in the open, 



Q 



