THE REDISCOVERED COUNTRY 337 



looked in favour of a more conspicuous creature. Every 

 hunter knows how instinctively he picks out for his shot the 

 most prominent member of a flock or herd. The lion, or 

 native hunter, seeking his victim in a prospect full of game 

 takes the line of least resistance. His eye falls on the beast 

 that is most conspicuous, and, other circumstances being 

 equal, he proceeds with his stalk. The animals, or the 

 species, that have not happened to catch the eye first — 

 even if skilled scouting might discover them — escape for the 

 time being. That they are overlooked may be due to a 

 variety of circumstances — their position, the cover they are 

 in, the direction of the light, their colouring, etc. Also 

 their luck! But undoubtedly countershading often helps, 

 and helps materially, in causing individual animals or 

 species to be overlooked in this first survey of a well-stocked 

 field. 



Logically, given sufiicient opportunity for observation, 

 one should find, of two species, one countershaded and the 

 other not, that the former should escape oftener than the 

 latter. This is sometimes, but not always, the case. In 

 some parts of our hunting field where topi* and hartebeestef 

 existed in fairly equal numbers we found many more lion 

 kills of the former than of the latter. Yet I think nobody 

 with field experience could for a moment maintain that 

 the hartebeeste is a first-rate example of concealing color- 

 ation, or that he is hard to see. But I noted this, and I 

 noted it many times over: in a herd of mixed game, feeding 

 in the characteristic thin cover such game frequents when 



*Not comitershaded. 

 t Countershaded. 



