Obliterative Colouring 



It is possible, says Mr Thayer, to almost 

 obliterate a statue in a diffused light, by putting 

 white paint on the surfaces in darkest shadow 

 and dark paint on the most brightly lighted 

 parts, all in due proportion. Now this is pre- 

 cisely what nature is supposed by Mr Thayer to 

 have done for all her creatures. 



It is well known that a great many animals, as 

 for example the Indian black-buck and the hare, 

 are coloured on the upper side and white below. 

 This is called by Mr Thayer the principle of the 

 gradation of colour. It runs, he declares, all 

 through the animal world, and is "the main 

 essential step toward making animals incon- 

 spicuous under the descending light of the sky." 



Animals, he contends, are not protectively 

 coloured to look like clods or stumps or like 

 surrounding objects, they are simply oblitera- 

 tively coloured coated, as it were, with invisible 

 paint. 



To quote from The Century Magazine (1908) : 

 " Whales, lions, wolves, deer, hares, mice ; 

 partridges, quails, sandpipers, larks, sparrows ; 

 frogs, snakes, fishes, lizards, crabs ; grasshoppers, 

 slugs, caterpillars all these animals, and many 

 thousands more, crawl, crouch, and swim about 

 their business, hunting and eluding, under cover 

 of this strange obliterative mask, the smooth and 

 perfect balance between shades of colour and 

 degrees of illumination." 



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