350 THE REDISCOVERED COUNTRY 



But never would any experienced man — or beast — mistake 

 the white shimmer for anything but zebra, or the queer 

 patches of colour for anything but game. And when he 

 had approached to within a haK mile or so he could plainly 

 see the individual animals. 



We have already discussed night appearances — which 

 may be day appearances to the lion. And the Hon hunts 

 by scent as well as by sight. 



As a fact, by the way, which may be applied as the 

 reader will: Mr. Thayer says the longitudinal body stripes 

 on such beasts as the Thompson's, Grant's and Roberts' 

 gazelle bring these animals under the working of this theory, 

 break up the monochrome, and tend to make them more 

 visible. This is not so. The Roberts' gazelle just east of 

 Olgoss are of mixed characteristics. In some the body 

 stripe has so faded as to be almost indistinguishable. In 

 every light the latter type were less visible than the former. 



This leaves the situation rather anomalous. If a beast is 

 of a broken pattern he is less visible in certain circumstances 

 than a monochromatic beast; if an animal is coloured in 

 countershaded monochrome he is, in certain other circum- 

 stances, less visible than a striped or spotted or variegated 

 beast. 



The apparent contradiction can be lessened, however, by 

 the reflection again, that no beast, of whatever colour, is al- 

 ways invisible; that "concealing coloration" seems, in the 

 case of larger game animals, not so much to conceal all mem- 

 bers of a species absolutely, as to tend to render the individ- 

 uals likely to be overlooked in favour of the more conspicuous. 

 It is possible that both the variegated and the monochro- 



