THE REDISCOVERED COUNTRY 343 



vation, for the theory is fascinating and intrigued my in- 

 terest. I have tried it out on all colours, all sizes of beasts, 

 in all lights from early twilight to night so dark the human 

 eye could not even make out the silhouette, and from every 

 point of view. It must be repeated, that to the cat we 

 must allow a greater illumination than to the man. The 

 conclusion could not possibly be dodged. No matter what 

 the colour or pattern of the animal, it shows up nine times in 

 ten more plainly against the sky than against the earth. In 

 this case I cannot even see the tendency toward helping the 

 animal escape observation. 



Parenthetically, this seems a good place to protest against 

 the finality of the kind of argument that consists of plac- 

 ing stuffed animals, painted objects, or drawings before an 

 observer and asking him to note the effect one way or 

 another. Early in my own investigations I abandoned that 

 method of observation. It is useless to place an oryx head 

 in a treetop, as did Mr. Thayer, or a white towel in a 

 dark night, as he challenged Mr. Roosevelt to do, and call 

 upon the bystander to observe the invisibility of one or the 

 visibility of the other. And for this reason: I will guaran- 

 tee to place the same oryx head in the same treetop, without 

 trickery, so it will stand out like a crow on a snowbank; 

 and the same night and in the same field I will shift the 

 towel to the vanishing point. The oryx head and what- 

 ever that towel represented would in nature be quite as 

 likely to be in one place as another. The only test is the 

 actual field test. I have seen some thousands of oryx and 

 I do not suppose that of that number two dozen were in the 

 slightest degree concealed from me by the face markings 



