352 THE REDISCOVERED COUNTRY 



your enthusiast thinks himself able to prove that this re- 

 semblance is intended to conceal those flamingoes from 

 observation ! Such reasoning quite loses sight of the hunt- 

 ing attitude of mind. It presupposes on the part of 

 the flamingoes' natural enemies an almost unbelievable 

 stupidity and indolence ; so that the sight of a pink cloud in 

 one portion of the heavens would mean instant departure 

 for somewhere else. An absolutely innocent and unso- 

 phisticated bird or beast of prey on the search for fla- 

 mingoes might conceivably be fooled by one or two pink 

 clouds. But that could not continue for long. Sooner or 

 later he would discover that pink clouds may mean fla- 

 mingoes, and unless I much mistake the hunter psychology? 

 he would thenceforth cruise in the direction of likely look- 

 ing pink clouds. That is, unless he had a flamingo flock of 

 his own already. For again, your true flamingo eater — 

 whatever that is — would not be setting forth each day re- 

 gardless and at random. He would have his permanent 

 residence not far from a private flamingo-preserve of his 

 own. The resemblance of flamingoes to clouds would not 

 interest him in the least : he would probably never get that 

 far away from them. 



It is useless to multiply examples. The gaudy plumage 

 of the wood duck much resembles at times certain re- 

 flections of light and branch, or certain aspects of the same 

 against the sky. When caught just at that moment the 

 wood duck is only slightly visible. A coloured drawing of 

 the episode is most interesting. But it seems to me carry- 

 ing it a bit far to claim that the wood duck's plumage imi- 

 tates sky and branch. The wood duck is not a common 



