APPENDIX E 
503 
coverj in which case they always seemed more nervous, more on the 
alert, and quicker in their movements. They came down in herds, and 
they would usually move forward by fits and starts; that is, travel a 
few hundred yards, and then stop and stand motionless for some time, 
looking around. They were always very conspicuous, and it was quite 
impossible for any watcher to fail to make them out. As they came nearer 
to the water, they seemed to grow more cautious. They would move 
forward some distance, halt, perhaps wheel and dash off for a hundred 
yards, and then after a little while return. As they got near the water 
they would again wait, and then march boldly down to drink—except 
in one case where, after numerous false starts, they finally seemed to 
suspect that there was something in the neighborhood, and went off for 
good without drinking. Never in any case did I see a zebra come down 
to drink under conditions which would have rendered it possible for the 
most dull-sighted beast to avoid seeing it. Of course I usually watched 
the pools and rivers when there was daylight; but after nightfall the 
zebra’s stripes would be entirely invisible, so that their only effect at the 
drinking-place must be in the daytime; and in the daytime there was 
absolutely no effect, and the zebras that I saw could by no possibility 
have escaped observation from a lion, for they made no effort whatever 
thus to escape observation, but moved about continually, and, after drink¬ 
ing, retired to the open ground. 
The zebra’s coloration is certainly never of use to him in helping him 
escape observation at a drinking-place. But neither is it of use to him 
in escaping observation anywhere else. As I have said before, there are 
of course circumstances under which any pattern or coloration will har¬ 
monize with the environment. Once I came upon zebras standing in 
partially burned grass, some of the yellow stalks still erect, and here the 
zebras were undoubtedly less conspicuous than the red-coated hartebeests 
with which they were associated; but as against the one or two occasions 
where I have seen the zebra’s coat make it less conspicuous than most 
other animals, there have been scores where it has been more conspicu¬ 
ous. I think it would be a safe estimate to say that for one occasion on 
which the coloration of the zebra serves it for purposes of concealment 
from any enemy, there are scores, or more likely hundreds, of occasions 
when it reveals it to an enemy; while in the great majority of instances 
it has no eflpect one way or the other. The different effects of light and 
shade make different patterns of coloration more or less visible on different 
