CONSPICUOUS COLOUR 25 



greys, and browns ; but there are others which 

 are painted with broad masses of the primary 

 colours and with black and white. May not 

 these present, like fruit and flowers, seeing 

 that the same method is used, purposeful con- 

 spicuous colouring ? 



A more detailed analysis of these colours 

 will now be made. 



White. In regions where snow, either tem- 

 porarily or permanently, covers the ground, 

 white is used cryptically or protectively. It 

 is used also on the under- sides of many 

 animals, to produce obliterative modelling, as 

 Thayer has shown. Thayer is of opinion, 

 too, that it may also be used to conceal an 

 animal against the sky ; but when a flat white 

 surface is held against the sky at different 

 angles, it will either appear much darker than, 

 or if the sun is out, much lighter than the 

 white of the sky and be very conspicuous ; 

 only within a very small angle will it be equal 

 in tone to the sky. Further, only a very 

 small portion of the sky can be thus matched, 

 away from the sun and not far above the 

 horizon. Thus it appears that only with care, 

 and in one particular position, can a FLAT 

 white surface be made to appear inconspicuous 

 against the sky : with a solid white object, 



