392 CELL INTELLIGENCE THE CAUSE OF EVOLUTION 



widely adopted since the Boer war, represent a first step 

 toward the development of a scientific military invest- 

 ment Evidently a dress that tends to 



conceal the movements of troops is almost as important 

 as smokeless powder, which keeps the secret of the loca- 

 tion of guns, and its importance is accentuated by the 

 increased distance at which armies now fight one another. 

 Troops dressed in dark or flaming colors can be seen afar 

 off, but the modern scientific uniform possesses some- 

 thing of the concealing power of the chromatic pattern 

 with which leopards, tigers, and zebras are covered. 



"Those who have never seen these animals amid their 

 natural surroundings can form no clear idea of the blind- 

 ing effects produced by protective coloration. Hunters 

 in Africa have told almost incredible stories of herds of 

 zebras standing in plain sight of the observer and yet 

 actually invisible to him until a sudden alarm sent them 

 away in wild scamper. Their color and their markings 

 are wonderfully accordant with yellowish hues and the 

 barrings of black shadow that characterize the landscape 

 amid which they live. 



"In our day the Assyrian wolf no longer comes down 

 upon the fold, his cohorts gleaming in purple and gold, 

 but he steals along like the tawny lion in the tawny des- 

 ert, while his dusty hued prey slips off concealed against 

 the background of sand. 



"These things may have a determining influence in dis- 

 gusting mankind with war. Mars in the guise of a cham- 

 eleon loses all his romantic attraction and shows himself 

 up as a hideous monster, whose doings become more 

 repulsive in proportion as they are more brutally prac- 

 tical." 



Figs. 47-49 and 50 and others by Mr. Shute are pub- 

 lished in this book by courtesy of the Open Court Pub. 



