Obliterative Colouring 
It is possible, says Mr Thayer, to almost 
obliterate a statue in a diffused light, by putting 
white paint on the surfaces in darkest shadow 
and dark paint on the most brightly lighted 
parts, all in due proportion. Now this is pre- 
cisely what nature is supposed by Mr Thayer to 
have done for all her creatures. 
It is well known that a great many animals, as 
for example the Indian black-buck and the hare, 
are coloured on the upper side and white below. 
This is called by Mr Thayer the principle of the 
gradation of colour. It runs, he declares, all 
through the animal world, and is “the main 
essential step toward making animals incon- 
spicuous under the descending light of the sky.” 
Animals, he contends, are not protectively 
coloured to look like clods or stumps or like 
surrounding objects, they are simply oblitera- 
tively coloured—coated, as it were, with invisible 
paint. 
To quote from The Century Magazine (1908) : 
“Whales, lions, wolves, deer, hares, mice; 
partridges, quails, sandpipers, larks, sparrows ; 
frogs, snakes, fishes, lizards, crabs ; grasshoppers, 
slugs, caterpillars—all these animals, and many 
thousands more, crawl, crouch, and swim about 
their business, hunting and eluding, under cover 
of this strange obliterative mask, the smooth and 
perfect balance between shades of colour and 
degrees of illumination.” 
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