78 CHILDHOOD OF ANIMALS 



tion and pattern, the utility of which may be set down generally as 

 ways of matching the environment. In most of the desert animals 

 the various shades of sandy brown known as " khaki " and used 

 by modern armies for the purpose of concealment are the prevailing 

 tints. In insects that live on green foliage, the ground colour is 

 frequently a shade of green. In ground-haunting birds like snipe 

 and woodcock, which live among fallen leaves and sticks or in 

 weeds and grasses, the surface is blotched, striped and mottled in 

 irregular lines and patches, which resemble the usual background, 

 and which, with the addition of counter-shading, make an almost 

 perfect concealment. Especially in the plumage worn during the 

 nesting season by the females, the surface may present a very 

 elaborate picture of the leaves, sticks and stones, mossy trunks, 

 heather and so forth among which the females have to brood on 

 their nests, and if possible remain unnoticed by their carnivorous 

 foes, so that they may preserve their own lives and those of their 

 helpless young. The spotted coats of leopards and jaguars, and of 

 many deer, similarly match the natural background of light shining 

 through the interstices of foliage ; whilst the stripes of the tiger 

 and of many of the antelopes suggest the effects of light and 

 shade thrown by tall reeds and thick grass. 



The various forms of matching the background with which I 

 have been dealing are most successful when the wearers of these 

 liveries are at rest, and their utility is plainest in the case of animals 

 which have the habit of squatting on the ground, whether to await 

 their prey or to avoid their enemies. Familiar examples are the 

 brooding female bird, the hare squatting in its form on the open 

 ground, or the tiger crouching to spring. Another and more 

 interesting kind of protective coloration is most useful to males 

 displaying themselves before the females and with their attention 

 so engrossed that they are not on the watch for their enemies, or to 

 creatures in active motion in pursuit of prey or in search of food. 

 Such moving creatures come under different effects of light and 

 shadow, are now lighted up by the sun, now suddenly brought 

 against a light background or a dark background, and are under 

 conditions where any elaborate matching of details would be useless. 

 Some of the boldest patterns and brightest colours, combinations 

 that seem amazingly conspicuous in a cabinet or a museum, really 

 serve for concealment under the natural conditions. They break 

 up the natural outline of the animal, which would be otherwise 

 conspicuous by the uniformity of its shape against the irregularity 



