CONSPICUOUS COLOUR 23 



The face of our earth is, broadly speaking, 

 coloured with secondary colours, greens, 

 browns, and greys ; these colours are not 

 laid down in flat tints but in broken masses, 

 which run one into the other, and nowhere 

 have defined margins. Individual leaves and 

 single stones can only be distinguished at 

 close range, and are then seen never to be 

 homogeneously coloured. 



Certain portions of the globe are not so 

 coloured. The Arctic regions, mountain tops, 

 and sub-arctic regions in the winter are 

 covered with an even cloak of white ; deserts 

 are evenly coloured light brown ; oceans grey 

 or blue ; sky blue. 



Into these backgrounds many animals fade, 

 through similarity of colouring. Spotted coats 

 and barred plumes of brown, green, and grey 

 blend with the field and forest ; white animals 

 in the snow, sandy-coloured in the desert, 

 grey at sea, &c., are invisible from afar. 



Against these backgrounds certain parts 

 of plants and many animals stand out in 

 marked contrast how are they coloured ? 

 In an exactly opposite manner : instead of 

 being coloured with secondary colours, the 

 primary ones are used, red, yellow, blue, with 

 black and white ; and instead of the colour 



