CONSPICUOUS COLOUR 25 
greys, and browns; but there are others which 
are painted with broad masses of the primary 
colours and with black and white. May not 
these present, like fruit and flowers, seeing 
that the same method is used, purposeful con- 
spicuous colouring ? 
A more detailed analysis of these colours 
will now be made. 
White.—In regions where snow, either tem- 
porarily or permanently, covers the ground, 
white is used cryptically or protectively. It 
is used also on the under-sides of many 
animals, to produce obliterative modelling, as 
Thayer has shown. Thayer is of opinion, 
too, that it may also be used to conceal an 
animal against the sky ; but when a flat white 
surface is held against the sky at different 
angles, it will either appear much darker than, 
or if the sun is out, much lighter than the 
white of the sky and be very conspicuous ; 
only within a very small angle will it be equal 
in tone to the sky. Further, only a very 
small portion of the sky can be thus matched, 
away from the sun and not far above the 
horizon. Thus it appears that only with care, 
and in one particular position, can a FLAT 
white surface be made to appear inconspicuous 
against the sky: with a solid white object, 
