APPENDICES 
419 
which are partly concealed and those which are fully 
in sight—a proposition which, as Euclid would say, 
is absurd. 
The zebra, as above suggested, is probably the worst proto¬ 
type of their propaganda that colour-protectionists could have 
selected. The Sudan, had they known it, supplies at least 
three examples infinitely better qualified to support their 
thesis. 
These three are the sabre-horned oryx leucoryx, the addra 
gazelle, and the ariel. Designed by Nature each to exist on 
arid Saharan wastes where no rain refreshes nor tree survives; 
where wiry bents and the desiccated foliage of dwarf thorn- 
scrub alike share the hue of death-call it feuille-morte —where 
no shade protects from sunrays pitiless as the breath of a 
furnace—thereon these three desert-forms agree in copying 
to perfection the drear monotony of their environment. 
Exquisitely does bleached pelage reflect that deadly mono¬ 
chrome. A similar rule applies to the minor denizens of 
Sahara—to the jerboas and jerbilles, the sand-larks (Certhilauda 
and Ammomanes ), the coursers, sandgrouse, and the rest. 
Nature herein could not have more effectually fulfilled—more 
servilely copied—the ideals of our theorists. Her protective- 
colouring is perfect. But does it protect? No; not in 
slightest degree, nor under any conceivable conditions. 
Consider the degree in which these highly specialised 
desert-forms are “ protected ”—or, at least, rendered incon¬ 
spicuous—by their assimilation to environment. First I will 
cite the testimony of two independent field-observers. A 
Sudan correspondent of The Field , speaking of the period 
immediately subsequent to the reconquest, writes:—“The 
herds of addra and white oryx roaming over the Deserts of 
Kordofan often numbered 200 to 300 head and were easily 
studied, since, of course, in those days they were seldom hunted 
with firearms. Their colouring is in no sense ‘ protective ’; on 
the contrary, one’s first impression is of a white animal that 
can be spotted a long way off” (B. C. C, The Field, June 15th, 
1915). Mr Norman Smith, who twice traversed these Deserts 
of Kordofan, penetrating 230 miles west of the Nile, also writes 
me:—“Both animals would be far safer in other colours. The 
