COLOR 



By C. William Beebe 



Color in nature began to have a real meaning for 

 man when he took clay of various hues — red and 

 brown and yellow — and with it, "drew delightful 

 Mammoths on the borders of his cave." From that 

 time forth color occupied artists and mystified scien- 

 tists. Theories innumerable arose, each pushed to its 

 uttermost limits, then settling back into a more nor- 

 mal place, having contributed its greater or less ker- 

 nel of truth to knowledge. 



It was once held that color was for the delectation 

 of man alone, or at most solely for the pleasing of the 

 opposite sex among animals. But the gizzard of a 

 chicken with its rainbow tints; the rich warm sepia 

 of liver; the delicate green of the gall; these disquiet 

 our faith in such a belief. There arose again a rever- 

 sal of this ; a thesis that color was meaningless, a mere 

 byproduct of organic chemistry. Then warning col- 

 ors came to the fore, and one was asked to see a danger 

 signal in every flash of red or blue. Mimicry paved 

 the way for protection, and a few years ago one of 

 our foremost artists championed the cause of protec- 

 tive coloration to the farthest extremes of the spec- 

 trum. He gave us many new and interesting points 

 of view, such as counter-shading, but his very enthu- 

 siasm led him to extremes which at once reacted on the 

 whole field. 



It is not my intention to enter the controversy which 

 has been waged. Protective coloration exists, but it is 

 as versatile, as changeable as the very tints which 



