PATTERNS CONSPICUOUS IN NATURE. 405 



ExPEEIlIEJfT Xo. 12. 



Candles 1 ft. apart and distant 2 ft. from background. 

 Background as in Experiment No. 11. 



Objects of various sizes were made of gre}' discs of such a tone that they were seen 

 neither as black nor as white projections into the components of the background. 

 These objects were placed over the junction of the black and white components 

 of the backgr-ound. The following table gives tlie visibility of the discs : — 



The effect of shape was found to be different, as in the case 

 of objects of the same tone as one of the components of the 

 background. (See experiment no. 10.) 



Text-fio-ure 15. 



Objects placed on more than two components. 



A few observations were made with objects placed in front of 

 more than two components, as in text-fig. 15,1 &, 4, but no special 

 diffei'ence was noted from those when only two components were 

 covered by the object. 



Another arrangement of an object against a patterned back- 

 ground remains to be mentioned. The object may more or legs 

 resemble, both in tone, in shape, and in position, one of the 

 components of the background ; in this case, though it may 

 appear to be invisible on account of this similarity and thus 

 to come under a separate category, nevertheless this is not so, 



Proc. Zool. Soc— 1916, K'o.'xXVII. 27 



