APPENDIX E 565 



sky-pattern at all, but is exceedingly conspicuous, serving as an adver- 

 tisement. 



The big black-and-white Colobus monkey has been adduced as 

 an instance of the "concealing" quality of bold and conspicuous colora- 

 tion patterns. Of course, as I have said before, there is no conceivable 

 pattern which may not, under some wholly exceptional circumstances, 

 be of use from the protective stand-point; a soldier in a black frock- 

 coat and top hat, with white duck trousers, might conceivably in the 

 course of some city fight get into a coal cellar with a white-washed 

 floor, and find that the "coloration pattern" of his preposterous uni- 

 form was protective; and really it would be no more misleading to 

 speak of such a soldier's dress as protective compared to khaki, than it 

 is to speak of the Colobus monkey's coloration as protective when 

 compared with the colorations of the duller-colored monkeys of other 

 species that are found in the same forests. When hunting with the wild 

 'Ndorobo I often found it impossible to see the ordinary monkeys, which 

 they tried to point out to me, before the latter fled; but I rarely failed to 

 see the Colobus monkey when it was pointed out. In the tops of the 

 giant trees, any monkey that stood motionless was to my eyes difficult 

 to observe, but nine times out of ten it was the dull-colored monkey, 

 and not the black-and-white Colobus, which was most difficult to observe. 

 I questioned the 'Ndorobos as to which they found hardest to see and, 

 rather to my amusement, at first they could not understand my question, 

 simply because they could not understand failing to make out either; but 

 when they did understand, they always responded that the black-and- 

 white Colobus was the monkey easiest to see and easiest to kill. These 

 monkeys stretch nearly across Africa, from a form at one extremity of the 

 range which is almost entirely black, to a form at the other extremity 

 of the range which is mainly or most conspicuously white. Of course it 

 is quite impossible that both forms can be protectively colored; and as 

 a matter of fact neither is. 



I am not speaking of the general theory of protective coloration. I 

 am speaking of certain phases thereof as to which I have made obser- 

 vations at first-hand. I have studied the facts as regards big game and 

 certain other animals, and I am convinced that as regards these animals 

 the protective-coloration theory either does not apply at all or applies 

 so little as to render it necessary to accept with the utmost reserve the 

 sweeping generalizations of Mr. Thayer and the protective coloration 

 extremists. It is an exceedingly interesting subject. It certainly seems 

 that the theory must apply as regards many animals; but it is even more 

 certain that it does not, as its advocates claim, apply universally; and 

 careful study and cautious generalizations are imperatively necessary in 

 striving to apply it extensively, while fanciful and impossible efforts to 

 apply it where it certainly does not apply can do no real good. It is 

 necessary to remember that some totally different principle, in addition 

 to or in substitution for protective coloration, must have been at work 

 where totally different colorations and color patterns seem to bring the 

 same results to the wearers. The bear and the skunk are both catch- 



