340 THE REDISCOVERED COUNTRY 



But only rarely is this true at a very short distance. Further- 

 more, the application of this optical principle to game would 

 imply that an animal's enemies always approach and spring 

 exactly from the rear. This is not true. As far as I can 

 determine, the lion generally springs from a point a little to 

 one side, in order to land on the withers of his victim. If 

 the white tail or rump tends to conceal at the flurried 

 moment of escape, what of the rest of the creature's outline, 

 which is dark? I place little importance on the expla- 

 nation that the flash of white as the beast leaps tends to 

 confuse the would-be captor. It would have to be a very 

 stupid or inexperienced preying animal indeed. When I 

 was young, the flash of white in the white-tailed deers' 

 rumps as they ran made for me almost irresistible marks to 

 shoot at. I could hardly help taking them for my target, and 

 in consequence shooting behind. But I got over it very 

 soon. If I had not done so, I would not give much for my 

 chances as a hunter. And if a lion, or leopard, or weasel, or 

 any other rapacious animal or bird is seriously or often or re- 

 peatedly confused by so simple and constant a mechanical 

 device as a show of white at the moment of escape, then 

 there is something the matter with him, and he deserves 

 to die of starvation, as he probably will. 



Another possible element of doubt in this theory is that 

 we are not taking into account the fact that the eyes of a 

 nocturnal animal differ from the human eye in their ca- 

 pacity for light. Such a beast "sees at night." It is 

 possible that to him the general appearance of things is 

 much as it is to us at, say, early twilight. So the cases are 

 not quite on all fours. A quite sufficient explanation of 



