APPENDIX E 563 



The truth is that this plains game never seeks to escape observation 

 at all, and that the coloration patterns of the various animals are not 

 concealing and are of practically no use whatever in protecting the ani- 

 mals from their foes. The beasts above enumerated are colored in widely 

 different fashions. If any one of them was really obliteratively colored, 

 it would mean that some or all of the others were not so colored. But, 

 as a matter of fact, they are none of them instances of concealing colora- 

 tion; none of the beasts seek to escape observation, or trust for safety 

 to eluding the sight of their foes. When they lie down they almost always 

 lie down in very open ground, where they are readily seen, and where they 

 can hope to see their foes. When topi, roan antelope, hartebeest, and 

 so forth, are standing head on, the under parts look darker instead of 

 lighter than the upper parts, so that in this common position there is no 

 "counter-shading." The roan and oryx have nearly uniform colored coats 

 which often do harmonize with their surroundings; but their bold face 

 markings are conspicuous.* None of these big or medium sized plains 

 animals, while healthy and unhurt, seeks to escape observation by 

 hiding. 



This is the direct reverse of what occurs with many bush antelopes. 

 Undoubtedly many of the latter do seek to escape observation. I have 

 seen waterbucks stand perfectly still, and then steal cautiously off through 

 the brush; and I have seen duiker and steinbuck lie down and stretch their 

 heads out flat on the ground when they noticed a horseman approaching 

 from some distance. Yet even in these cases it is very hard to say whether 

 their coloration is really protective. The steinbuck, a very common 

 little antelope, is of a foxy red, which is decidedly conspicuous. The 

 duiker lives in the same localities, and seems to me to be more protectively 

 colored at any rate, if the coloration is protective for one it certainly 

 is not for the other. The bushbuck is a boldly colored beast, and I do 

 not believe for a moment that it ever owes its safety to protective colora- 

 tion. The reedbuck, which in manners corresponds to our white-tailed 

 deer, may very possibly at times be helped by its coloration, although 

 my own belief is that all these bush creatures owe their power of conceal- 

 ment primarily to their caution, noiselessness, and power to remain motion- 

 less, rather than to any pattern of coloration. But all of these animals 

 undoubtedly spend much of their time in trying to elude observation. 



On the open plains, however, nothing of the kind happens. The little 

 tommy gazelle, for instance, never strives to escape observation. It has 

 a habit of constantly jerking its tail in a way which immediately attracts 

 notice, even if it is not moving otherwise. When it lies down, its oblitera- 

 tive shading entirely disappears, because it has a very vivid black line 

 along its side, and when recumbent or indeed for the matter ot that 

 when standing up this black line at once catches the eye. However, 

 when standing, it can be seen at once anyhow. The bigger Grant's 



* A curious instance of the lengths to which some protective-coloration theorists go 

 is afforded by the fact that they actually treat these bold markings as oblitcrative or 

 concealing. In actual fact the reverse is true; these face markings arc much more apt 

 to advertise the animal's presence. 



