] I IN THE OPEN 



protective coloration to escape notice. An adept 

 at dissimulation, he turns into a stump and remains 

 so indefinitely. Yet looking at him recently, as 

 he sat motionless on some dry leaves among the 

 bare stems of the blackcap raspberries, I was 

 struck with how poor a refuge his colors really do 

 afford when once your eye is upon him. At the 

 first glance, and before he had come into the 

 mental vision as a rabbit, he appeared as a small 

 grayish stump covered with buff-tinted shelf fungi. 

 But the moment I looked sharply at him, he was 

 a rabbit in every detail. His colors did not greatly 

 harmonize with the oak leaves on which he sat, 

 yet he allowed me to approach and walk around 

 him. It is all a matter of the attention; by re- 

 maining quiet the animal does not arrest the eye 

 readily, but once this is directed upon him the 

 disguise is seen to be very thin. 



Save for his nose, which wobbled slightly, he 

 was motionless as a stone. After some time his 

 ear moved gently, much as a leaf is turned over 

 by the wind, but his eye never winked and its 

 expression was one of extreme alertness. On too 

 near an approach he made off in haste. Noting 

 his direction, I followed to see if I could again 



146 



