564 APPENDIX E 



gazelle is, as far as the adult male is concerned, a little better off than the 

 tommy, because the bucks have not got the conspicuous black lateral 

 stripe; but this is possessed by both the young and the does who stand 

 in much more need of concealing coloration. But as I have already 

 so often said, neither concealment nor concealing coloration plays any 

 part whatever in protecting these animals from their foes. There is 

 never any difficulty in seeing them; the difficulty is to prevent their see- 

 ing the hunter. 



Mr. Thayer's thesis is "that all patterns and colors whatsoever of 

 all animals that ever prey or are preyed on are under certain normal 

 circumstances obliterative." Either this sentence is entirely incorrect 

 or else it means nothing; either no possible scheme of coloration can 

 be imagined which is not protective (in which case of course the whole 

 theory becomes meaningless) or else the statement so sweepingly made is 

 entirely incorrect. As I have already shown, there are great numbers 

 of animals to which it cannot apply; and some of the very animals which 

 do escape observation in complete fashion are colored utterly differently 

 when compared one with the other, although their habitats are the same. 

 The intricate pattern of the leopard and the uniform, simple pattern 

 of the cougar seem equally efficient under precisely similar conditions; 

 and so do all the intermediate patterns when the general tint is neutral; 

 and even the strikingly colored melanistic forms of these creatures seem 

 as well fed and successful as the others. Mono-colored cougars and 

 spotted jaguars, black leopards and spotted leopards, and other cats of 

 all tints and shades, broken or unbroken, are frequently found in the 

 same forests, dwelling under precisely similar conditions, and all equally 

 successful in eluding observation and in catching their prey. 



One of the most extreme, and most unwarrantable, of the positions 

 taken by the ultra-advocates of the protective coloration theory is that 

 in reference to certain boldly marked black and white animals, like 

 skunks and Colobus monkeys, whose coloration patterns they assert to be 

 obliterative. In skunks, the coloration is certainly not protective in any 

 way against foes, as every human being must know if he has ever come 

 across skunks by night or by day in the wilderness; their coloration adver- 

 tises their presence to all other creatures which might prey on them. In 

 all probability, moreover, it is not of the slightest use in helping them ob- 

 tain the little beasts on which they themselves prey. Mr. Thayer's "sky- 

 pattern" theory about skunks cannot apply, for bears, which are equally 

 good mousers and insect grubbers, have no white on them, nor have 

 fishers, weasels, raccoons, or foxes; and in any event the "sky-pattern" 

 would not as often obliterate the skunk from the view of its prey as it 

 would advertise it to its prey. It is to the last degree unlikely that any 

 mouse or insect is ever more easily caught because of the white "sky- 

 pattern" on the skunk; and it is absolutely certain that any of these 

 little creatures that trust to their eyes at all must have their vision readily 

 attracted by the skunk's bold coloration; and the skunk's method of 

 hunting is incompatible with deriving benefit from its coloration. Besides, 

 it usually hunts at night, and at night the white " sky-pattern " is not a 



