Abstract
IN an interesting essay on “Camouflage” (Scientific Monthly, December, 1918, pp. 481-94) Mr. Abbott H. Thayer illustrates his well-known conclusions in regard to the cryptic coloration of animals that hunt or are hunted. In their “superhuman perfection” the concealing coats of wild animals have become the models for the camouflage corps of armies. The patterns which animals exhibit “always inevitably lend to conceal,” and that in direct ratio to their strength, i.e. the degree of difference among the component notes. “Monochrome, no matter how grey, oreveals its wearer against all backgrounds whatsoever (and most of all if these are monochrome) except a background which is an absolute repetition of itself.” What is practically universal is background-imitation, the deceptiveness of which is overwhelming. Mr. Thayer illustrates this by interesting views of brook-scenes and wood-scenes photographed through a stencil of bird or beast. The creature has the garment of invisibility because its “costume is pure scenery.” “All the patterns and brilliant colours on the animal kingdom, instead of making their wearers conspicuous, are, on the contrary, pure concealing coloration, being the actual colour notes of the scene in which the wearer lives, so that he really is Nature's utmost picture of his background.” Even the scarlet bodice of the scarlet tanager, by being a perfectly unbird-shaped scarlet patch amidst the forest foliage, is effective because it corresponds with the sprinkling of single scarlet leaves throughout the trees.
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Natural and Artificial Camouflage. Nature 102, 408 (1919). https://doi.org/10.1038/102408a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/102408a0