258 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. 



some brighter color, and a light to some darker one 

 all the while being a positive color itself." I am 

 sure that the most thoughtful and considerate stu- 

 dent of Nature must acknowledge her prodigal use 

 of color nothing less than masterful. Where we 

 least expect to find it there it lies in an amazing 

 complexity of delicacy and strength. Landscape, 

 flower, and bird are suffused with no end of it, and 

 but rarely if ever show a hint of true black.* 



In beast, bird, and fish, it is a curious and invari- 

 able fact that their underneath parts are extremely 

 pale almost white. Their safety is, in a great meas- 

 ure, dependent upon this lightened color which 

 overcomes the shadow that must inevitably throw the 

 creature into conspicuous relief, and thereby render 

 its discovery by enemies the more probable. 'Not 

 long since the artist Mr. Abbott Thayer, by a series 

 of experiments with a number of objects painted 

 light or dark beneath, demonstrated the fact that 

 animals were greatly protected by their underneath 

 light color. He proved that the object painted light 

 beneath was lost to view much sooner than the one 

 painted dark. 



Color is a very active and important part of Na- 



* Not even the crow is truly black. I have shown this in a 

 previous chapter. 



