508 APPENDIX E 



certain other animals, and I am convinced that as regards these animals 

 the protective coloration theory either does not apply at all or applies 

 so little as to render it necessary to accept with the; utmost reserve the 

 sweeping generalizations of Mr. Thayer and the protective coloration 

 extremists. It is an exceedingly interesting subject. It certainly seems 

 that the theory must apply as regards many animals; but it is even more 

 certain that it does not, as its advocates claim, apply universally; and 

 careful study and cautious generalizations are imperatively necessary in 

 striving to apply it extensively, while fanciful and impossible efforts to 

 apply it where it certainly does not apply can do no real good. It is 

 necessary to remember that some totally different principle, in addition 

 to or in substitution for protective coloration, must have been at work 

 where totally different colorations and color patterns seem to bring the 

 same results to the wearers. The bear and the skunk are both catch- 

 ers of small rodents, and when the color patterns of the back, nose, 

 and breast, for instance, are directly opposite in the two animals, there is 

 at least need of very great caution in deciding that either represents 

 obliterative coloration of a sort that benefits the creature in catching its 

 prey. Similarly, to say that white herons and pelicans and roseate-colored 

 flamingoes and spoon-bills are helped by their coloration, when other birds 

 that live exactly in the same fashion and just as successfully, are black, or 

 brown, or black and white, or gray, or green, or blue, certainly represents 

 mere presumption, as yet unaccompanied by a vestige of proof, and 

 probably represents error. There is probably much in the general theory 

 of concealment coloration, but it is not possible to say how much until 

 it is thoroughly tested by men who do not violate the advice of the French 

 scientific professor to his pupils: "Above all things remember in the 

 course of your investigations that if you determine to find out something 

 you will probably do so." 



I have dealt chiefly with big game. But I think it high time that sober 

 scientific men desirous to find out facts should not leave this question of 

 concealing coloration or protective coloration to theorists who, however 

 able, become so interested in their theory that they lose the capacity to 

 state facts exactly. Mr. Thayer and the various gentlemen who share 

 his views have undoubtedly made some very interesting discoveries, 

 and it may well be that these discoveries are of wide-spread importance. 

 But they must be most carefully weighed, considered, and corrected 

 by capable scientific men before it is possible to say how far the theory 



