APPENDIX E 499 



not think that the stripes of the chipmunk are of any protective value; 

 that is, I believe (and the case of the weasel seems to me to prove) that 

 its coloration would be at least as fully "protective" without them. The 

 striped gophers and gray gophers seem equally easy to see; they live in 

 similar habitats and the stripes seem to have no protective effect one way 

 or the other. 



It is when Mr. Thayer and the other extreme members of the protec- 

 tive coloration school deal with the big game of Africa that they go most 

 completely wide of the mark. For instance, Mr. Thayer speaks of the 

 giraffe as a sylvan mammal with a checkered sun-fleck and leaf-colored 

 pattern of coloration accompanied by complete obliterative shading, 

 and the whole point of his remarks is that the giraffe's coloration "al- 

 ways maintains its potency for obliteration." Now of course this means 

 nothing unless Mr. Thayer intends by it to mean that the giraffe's color- 

 ation allows it to escape the observation of its foes. I doubt whether this 

 is ever under any circumstances the case; that is, I doubt whether the 

 giraffe's varied coloration ever "enables" it to escape observation save 

 as the dark monochrome of the elephant, rhinoceros, or buffalo may 

 "enable" one of these animals to escape observation under practically 

 identical conditions. There is of course no conceivable color or scheme 

 of color which may not under some conceivable circumstances enable 

 the bearer to escape observation; but if such coloring, for once that it 

 enables the bearer to escape observation, exposes the bearer to observa- 

 tion a thousand times, it cannot be called protective. I do not think that 

 the giraffe's coloration exposes it to observation on the part of its foes; 

 I think that it simply has no effect whatsoever. The giraffe never trusts 

 to escaping observation; its sole thought is itself to observe any possible 

 foe. At a distance of a few hundred yards the color pattern becomes 

 indistinct to the eye, and the animal appears of a nearly uniform tint, 

 so that any benefit given by the color pattern must be comparatively 

 close at hand. On the very rare occasions when beasts of prey that is, 

 lions do attack giraffes, it is usually at night, when the coloration is of 

 no consequence; but even by daylight I should really doubt whether any 

 giraffe has been saved from an attack by lions owing to its coloration 

 allowing it to escape observation. It is so big, and so queerly shaped, 

 that any trained eyes detect it at once, if within a reasonable distance; 

 it only escapes observation when so far off that its coloration does not 

 count one way or the other. There is no animal which will not at times 



