APPENDICES 
413 
in the case of the Anatidce (ducks and geese), to the males 
while undergoing “eclipse” and temporarily flightless. 
8. Also of certain creatures of nocturnal habits which, by 
day, are naturally somnolent and secretive and some of which 
certainly select environment that harmonises with their own 
individual coloration—immobility, nevertheless,remaining their 
main safeguard and protection (as is also the case with those 
mentioned in No. 7 above). 
Should the logic of these axioms be accepted—and I 
challenge their contradiction—it follows, I submit, that what¬ 
ever degree of protection be afforded by colour alone (if any) 
is so slight as to be all but absolutely negligible. 
Colour. 
In addition to the axioms, far more precise definitions are 
required of what is meant by the terms “ colour ” and “ pro¬ 
tection.” Such definitions lie quite beyond my powers to 
formulate. The dictionary describes colour as being “not a 
material existence but a sensation”—and with that I agree. 
Thereafter, however, the technical diagnosis dives deep into 
“waves of light,” into “ ether-waves ” in recurring billions, and 
similar terrifying formulae that may be as true as they are 
obscure. For our practical purpose those terrors are irrelevant. 
The least scientific can differentiate colour into two distinct 
categories. There is the crude type that offends the eye when 
some barn-door is overplastered with posters — Vote for 
Smith —in capitals half-a-yard high and emblazoned in red 
and blue, orange or green. That must be the “colour” of 
colour-protectionists, or of those who visualise wild Nature as 
though it consisted of stuffed effigies in glass cases? 
Secondly, we have Nature’s colours, subtle and elusive, 
changing with each changing phase of light and shade, of 
passing cloud or transient sunshine, and varying with the 
varying angles of impact; subject, in short, to every passing 
atmospheric effect. Nature’s colours never assume a fixed and 
material quality; but are a reflex, relative and conditional. 
Protection. 
Here again there is a dangerous looseness of expression 
that is quite incompatible with scientific accuracy. Against 
