The Making of Species 



scampering towards the burrow, thanks to the 

 white under-surface of the tail. 



Even as Wallace out- Darwin's Darwin, so does 

 Mr Abbott Thayer, an American naturalist and 

 artist, out-Wallace Wallace. That gentleman 

 seems to be of opinion that all animals are 

 cryptically or, as he calls it, concealingly or obliter- 

 atively coloured. Even those schemes of colour 

 which have hitherto been called conspicuous are, 

 he asserts, " purely and potently concealing " 

 when looked at properly, that is to say, with the 

 eye of the artist. 



Lest it be thought unnecessary to criticize a 

 hypothesis which appears to be based upon the 

 assumption that animals see with the eye of the 

 artist, we may say that Professor Poulton writes 

 approvingly of Thayer's theory. He frequently 

 alludes to it in his Essays on Evolution, and he 

 published an account of it in the issue of Nature, 

 dated April 24, 1902. Moreover the hypothesis 

 has been enunciated in such scientific journals 

 as The Aitk (1896) and The Year-Book of the 

 Smithsonian Institution (1897). 



Thayer asserts that all animals, or at any rate 

 the great majority, including many that are 

 usually supposed to be conspicuously coloured, 

 are in reality obliteratively coloured that is to 

 say, coloured in such a way that the effects of 

 light and shade are completely counteracted, with 

 the result that they are invisible. 



184 



