26 CONTROLLED NATURAL SELECTION 



it is of course quite impossible. A swan, for 

 instance, must always be conspicuous against 

 the sky. White, therefore, except in snow 

 and to produce obliterative modelling, will 

 render an animal conspicuous in Nature. 



Black. As with white, it is possible to 

 conceive of a black animal being invisible, 

 for instance, against a black shadow : a rook 

 sitting in the innermost recess of a thick 

 forest would be difficult to see ; but black 

 shadows are almost unknown in Nature, 

 especially cold black, such as is found in many 

 animals. Shadows in Nature are invariably 

 warm, because the objects in them are lit by 

 the reflected light from surrounding warmly 

 coloured objects. 



Animals coloured black, and especially cold 

 black, must therefore be looked upon as con- 

 spicuously coloured. Attention had again 

 better be called to the fact, that it is not 

 enough to study colour alone ; habits must also 

 be taken into account. A black animal, living 

 in dark forests and always shunning the light, 

 cannot be compared in conspicuousness with 

 a black animal which lives in open country, 

 e.g. the female Blackbird with the Starling 

 or Rook. 



Black therefore must be looked upon as 



