410 SAVAGE SUDAN 



projection which entirely prevents its seeing straight ahead 

 indeed in life, when these projections are enfolded in thick 

 hide, its view in that direction would be intercepted up to an 

 angle of, say, 45 degrees. In the common black rhinoceros 

 (R. bicornis] the projection, though present, is less pronounced, 

 and would not prevent the beast from seeing almost straight 

 ahead. 



[It remains to record the melancholy fact that, within a few 

 days after revising the proofs of the above, my friend and 

 neighbour Mr Sydney Pearson passed away on May 3Oth, 

 1920. His death at the age of sixty was, moreover, directly 

 attributable to the hardships undergone during the expedition 

 here described : those befouled " water-holes " of Bahr-el- 

 Ghazal introduced the germs of what proved a fatal disease. 

 Such is the toll that Africa exacts from her devotees, even the 

 strongest. Personally I owed Pearson a deep debt of grati- 

 tude : for once, when on the threshold of undertaking a big 

 expedition (alone), an attack of fever precluded my completing 

 its final organisation. Pearson (though fully engaged on 

 similar preparations for himself) at once took the business in 

 hand and, on my recovering, I found every detail to the last 

 pin prepared and ready for a start. R.I.P.] 



B 



COLOUR-PROTECTION 



CONSIDERED CHIEFLY IN RELATION TO WILD BEASTS 

 AND BIRDS OF THE SUDAN 



That the Almighty should have so created and clothed His 

 creatures as not only to conceal the harmless from possible 

 enemies, but also to render the predatory less visible to their 

 allotted prey, is a theory so fascinating as at first sight to 

 captivate the imagination. Therein lies the danger of theories. 

 This one, certainly, all who love the study of Nature thirstily 

 drank in. But not all proceeded to put its tenets to the test 

 and corroboration of field-observation. 



Those who did so at once began to detect inherent fallacies ; 

 and later to wonder if, by some confusion of thought 3 another 



