PREFACE 



THE first publication of Abbott H. Thayer's discovery of "The law which 

 underlies Protective Coloration" was in the American journal of 

 ornithology, The Auk, in April, 1896. This was followed in the next issue 

 of the same magazine by a supplementary article, "Further remarks 

 on the law which underlies Protective Coloration." The two essays were 

 illustrated by diagrams, and photographs, chiefly of dead birds. They were 

 republished together by the Smithsonian Institution in its "Yearbook" for 

 1898. A condensed revision of their text, with an introduction by Prof. 

 Edward B. Poultori, was published in the English magazine. Nature, in 1902. 

 Mr. Thayer has also given practical demonstrations of his discovery before 

 various congresses of naturalists, both in the United States and in Europe, 

 and has placed models illustrating it in several European museums (Oxford, 

 Cambridge, and South Kensington, England, and Florence, Italy). Thus 

 this newly discovered basal principle of Protective Coloration has been brought 

 to the attention of most of the world's best naturalists, and the bare rudiments 

 of the matter have become to some extent current knowledge among them,^ — 

 though comparatively few of them have yet given proof that they perceive 

 how completely this and certain parallel subsequent disclosures have revo- 

 lutionized the study of Protective Coloration, and supplanted former theories. 

 In the last few years, however, this discovery has been rapidly gaining recog- 

 nition, and mention has been made of it in many writings on Natural His- 

 tory, both popular and scientific, especially in England. Yet the subject is 

 still very far from receiving its destined full and imiversal appreciation by 

 nature students in general, and much of the current writing about the colors 

 of animals is worse than useless, inasmuch as it works for the retention of 

 antiquated delusions. Indeed, although the study of Protective Coloration 



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