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APPENDIX E 
certain other animals, and I am convinced that as regards these animals 
the protective coloration theory either does not apply at all or applies 
so little as to render it necessary to accept with the utmost reserve the 
sweeping generalizations of Mr. Thayer and the protective coloration 
extremists. It is an exceedingly Interesting subject. It certainly seems 
that the theory must apply as regards many animals; but it is even more 
certain that it does not, as its advocates claim, apply universally; and 
careful study and cautious generalizations are imperatively necessary in 
striving to apply it extensively, while fanciful and impossible efforts to 
apply it where it certainly does not apply can do no real good. It is 
necessary to remember that some totally different principle, in addition 
to or in substitution for protective coloration, must have been at work 
where totally different colorations and color patterns seem to bring the 
same results to the wearers. The bear and the skunk are both catch¬ 
ers of small rodents, and when the color patterns of the back, nose, 
and breast, for instance, are directly opposite in the two animals, there is 
at least need of very great caution in deciding that either represents 
obliterative coloration of a sort that benefits the creature in catching its 
prey. Similarly, to say that white herons and pelicans and roseate-colored 
flamingoes and spoon-bills are helped by their coloration, when other birds 
that live exactly in the same fashion and just as successfully, are black, or 
brown, or blatk and white, or gray, or green, or blue, certainly represents 
mere presumption, as yet unaccompanied by a vestige of proof, and 
probably represents error. There is probably much in the general theory 
of concealment coloration, but it is not possible to say how much until 
it is thoroughly tested by men who do not violate the advice of the French 
scientific professor to his pupils: Above all things remember in the 
course of your investigations that if you determine to find out something 
you will probably do so.” 
I have dealt chiefly with big game. But I think it high time that sober 
scientific men desirous to find out facts should not leave this question of 
concealing coloration or protective coloration to theorists who, however 
able, become so interested in their theory that they lose the capacity to 
state facts exactly. Mr. Thayer and the various gentlemen who share 
his views have undoubtedly made some very interesting discoveries, 
and it may well be that these discoveries are of wide-spread importance. 
But they must be most carefully weighed, considered, and corrected 
by capable scientific men before it is possible to say how far the theory 
