32 
ON SAFARI 
my eye caught on some reddish object that might, I 
thought, be an impala. This, on bringing the glass to 
bear, proved to be correct; but that impala was then 
seen to be standing in the midst of a troop of zebras, 
completely surrounded by them! Yet these latter had 
entirely escaped notice by the unaided eye. 
The apparently conspicuous zebra is, in practice, 
often very difficult to distinguish at any considerable 
distance among bush. Beyond, say, 500 yards (more 
or less, according to the light) the broad black-and- 
white stripes blend into a grey monotone almost invisible. 
In the open, of course, they are visible enough. 
Naturally, when viewed against the sun zebras 
appear dark, while in sunlight they look white. I 
recollect a single zebra at sunrise resembling a figure of 
fretted silver as he stood among green bushes in the 
early horizontal rays. Giraffes also, seen in ordinary 
light, assume a monotone when beyond some 700 or 
800 yards’ distance. That quality of colour-protection 
has, however, a strictly limited value, otherwise the red 
impala would stand in bad case. 
