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APPENDIX E 
seeks to escape observation, or succeeds in escaping observation—that is, 
when it crouches motionless, or skulks slowly, with the conscious aim of not 
being seen. No color scheme whatever is of much avail to animals when 
they move unless the movement is very slow and cautious; rats, mice, 
gophers, rabbits, shrews, and the enormous majority of mammals which are 
colored in this fashion are not helped by their special coloration pattern at 
all when they are in motion. Against birds of prey they are practically 
never helped by the counter-shading, but merely by the general coloration 
and by absence of movement. Their chief destroyers among mammals— 
such as weasels, for instance—hunt them almost or altogether purely by 
scent, and though the final pounce is usually guided by sight, it is made 
from a distance so small that, as far as we can tell by observation, the 
counter-shading’^ is useless as a protection. In fact, while the general 
shading of these small mammals’ coats may very probably protect them 
from certain foes, it is as yet an open question as to just how far they 
are helped (and indeed in very many cases whether they really are helped 
to any appreciable extent) by what Mr. Thayer lays such especial stress 
upon as being “full obliterative shading (counter-shading) of surface 
coloring.” 
Certainly many of the markings of mammals, just as is the case with 
birds, must be wholly independent of any benefit they give to their pos¬ 
sessors in the way of concealment. Mr. Thayer’s pictures in some cases 
portray such entirely exceptional situations or surroundings that they 
are misleading—as, for instance, in his pictures of the peacock and the 
male wood-duck. An instant’s reflection is sufficient to show that if the 
gaudily colored males of these two birds are really protectively colored, 
then the females are not, and vice versa; for the males and females in¬ 
habit similar places, and if the elaborate arrangement of sky or water 
and foliage in which Mr. Thayer has placed his peacock and wood-drake 
represented (which they do not) their habitual environment, a peahen 
and wood-duck could not be regarded as protectively colored at all; 
whereas of course in reality, as every one knows, they are far more difficult 
to see than the corresponding males. Again, he shows a chipmunk among 
twigs and leaves, to make it evident that the white and black markings 
conceal it; but a weasel which lacks these markings would be even 
more difficult to see. The simple truth is that in most woodland, moun¬ 
tain and prairie surroundings, any small mammal that remains motionless 
is, unless very vividly colored, exceedingly apt to escape notice. I do 
