ings's pictures testify, still play their true obliterative part, 'cutting the beast 

 to pieces' and wedding him to the strong and manifold striations of the veg- 

 etation all about him. Indeed, a pattern so multiplexly and fundamentally 

 'secant' 'cuts its wearer's aspect to pieces' in almost every view, only fail- 

 ing to be purely obliterative when the beast is seen against a perfectly plain 

 background. Against any appropriate background, on the other hand — as 

 one of reeds and grasses, or even bare-limbed bushes and low trees, or sand 

 streaked with the shadows of any of these plants, or quiet water striped with 

 their reflections — its obliterative effect must be almost perfect. A slightly 

 different phase of this pattern's use is that which comes into play when the 

 zebra stands amid lower reeds (or other plants) with its upper parts relieving 

 against the sky, or against dim, distant ground, or water. Its body then looks 

 like the upward continuation of the grasses or reeds encompassing its legs; — 

 the dark stripes continuing the reeds upward, and the light stripes between 

 them continuing the sky or other pale background downward, so that the 

 beast's contour, which otherwise could scarcely fail to show in this position, 

 is stiU 'cut up' and concealed. This 'letting in,' or 'drawing down,' of 

 sky into an animal's silhouette is a regular and frequent factor of obliterative 

 coloration, occurring in many forms, in many classes of animals, but most 

 notably among birds and mammals. The reader will hear more of it in the 

 next chapter. 



Burchell's Zebra, the species photographed by Schillings,* is much like 

 the now almost extinct Mountain Zebra in general coloration and pattern, 

 but its light markings are more yellowish, and the secant bands are fewer and 

 broader and somewhat differently distributed. On the whole, the Mountain 

 Zebra has the more highly wrought obliterative costume, and that of Bur- 

 chell's is one step down toward the much slighter pattern of the Quagga 

 (Equus quagga). This beast, which has lately been exterminated, was banded 

 only on the fore part of the body, and there irregularly, with light and dark 

 brown. The transverse leg- and flank-bars of both zebras (but particularly 



* Strictly speaking, his beasts belong to subspecifically differentiated races of burchelli. 



138 



