i CONSPICUOUS COLORATION 23 



and therefore very easy to see ; whilst the broad 

 black lateral band dividing the snow-white belly 

 from the fawn-coloured side in Thomson's gazelles 

 showed these little animals up with the most start- 

 ling distinctness on the bare open plains they 

 inhabit. 



To my eyes, and in the bright sunlight of Africa, 

 the juxtaposition of black and white markings, so 

 often seen on the faces of African antelopes, has 

 never seemed to produce an indistinct blur of colour 

 except at a considerable distance. At any distance 

 up to 300 yards the black and white face-markings 

 of the gemsbuck, the roan, and the sable antelope 

 always appeared to me to be distinctly visible, and 

 they have often been the first parts of these animals 

 to catch my eye. 



It is all very well to say that a male sable ante- 

 lope, in spite of its bold colouring, is often very 

 difficult to see. That is no doubt the case, but 

 that only means that there is no colour in nature, 

 and no possible combination of colours, which at a 

 certain distance, if stationary, would not be found 

 to harmonise well with some portions of, or objects 

 in, an African landscape. Speaking generally, 

 however, the coloration of a sable antelope bull 

 makes him a very conspicuous object to a trained 

 human eye, and also, one would suppose, to that of 

 a carnivorous animal, were it watching for prey by 

 daylight. 



