APPENDICES 419 



which are partly concealed and those which are fully 

 in sight a proposition which, as Euclid would say, 

 is absurd. 



The zebra, as above suggested, is probably the worst proto- 

 type of their propaganda that colour-protectionists could have 

 selected. The Sudan, had they known it, supplies at least 

 three examples infinitely better qualified to support their 

 thesis. 



These three are the sabre-horned oryx leucoryx, the addra 

 gazelle, and the ariel. Designed by Nature each to exist on 

 arid Saharan wastes where no rain refreshes nor tree survives ; 

 where wiry bents and the desiccated foliage of dwarf thorn- 

 scrub alike share the hue of death call it feuille-morte where 

 no shade protects from sunrays pitiless as the breath of a 

 furnace thereon these three desert-forms agree in copying 

 to perfection the drear monotony of their environment. 

 Exquisitely does bleached pelage reflect that deadly mono- 

 chrome. A similar rule applies to the minor denizens of 

 Sahara to the jerboas and jerbilles, the sand-larks (Certhilauda 

 and Ammomanes\ the coursers, sandgrouse, and the rest. 

 Nature herein could not have more effectually fulfilled more 

 servilely copied the ideals of our theorists. Her protective- 

 colouring is perfect. But does it protect ? No ; not in 

 slightest degree, nor under any conceivable conditions. 



Consider the degree in which these highly specialised 

 desert-forms are " protected " or, at least, rendered incon- 

 spicuous by their assimilation to environment. First I will 

 cite the testimony of two independent field-observers. A 

 Sudan correspondent of The Field, speaking of the period 

 immediately subsequent to the reconquest, writes : " The 

 herds of addra and white oryx roaming over the Deserts of 

 Kordofan often numbered 200 to 300 head and were easily 

 studied, since, of course, in those days they were seldom hunted 

 with firearms. Their colouring is in no sense ' protective ' ; on 

 the contrary, one's first impression is of a white animal that 

 can be spotted a long way off" (B. C. C, The Field, June I5th, 

 1915). Mr Norman Smith, who twice traversed these Deserts 

 of Kordofan, penetrating 230 miles west of the Nile, also writes 

 me : " Both animals would be far safer in other colours. The 



