New-York tribune., 1918-05-05

"The AUX" his discovery of "the law
which underlies protective coloration."
Naturalists all over the world took ap-
preciative notice Of the subject and
eagerly followed the further develop
ments of it which from time to time
were signalized in print. Mr. Thayer
gave practical demonstrations of the
operation of his claw" in lectures here
and abroad, and in 1909 brought out
the volume on "Concealing- Celebration
in the Animal Kingdom" which sum
married. all the observations he had
made up to that time. His son Gerald
wrote the book and produced some of
its remarkable illustrations, but the
work is, of course, Thayer's own in the
fullest sense Of the phrase. 1t has not
been forgotten in the recent application
of concealine- -coloration, or camouhage,
to purposes of war, but neither has it
been kept sufficiently in remembrance
by the public at large. For this reason
it is especially interesting to record the
opening at the knoedler Gallery of
small exhibition of pictures by Mr..
Thayer, in which he makes the charac-
ter of his discovery as plain as any
pikestaff.
Concealing- -coloration, as concisely
stated in his book, means simply col
Grafton that matches the background
Thus, the pigmentation in the coat of
bird or beast will be found to resemble
the color in the vegetation Of its habi-
tat, and to that extent will protect it
against easy discovery by its natural
enemies. Observe particularly the sig
nifcance of the words, cts natural en-
emies." The coat of the wild animal in
the African jungle is not necessarily
an armor against the hunter, whose
eyes may follow it on level with it's
back or even from a greater height
The important point is that the animal
is so colored and marked as to blend
into the landscape when pursued by
the crouching beast stalking it from
below. In other words, when Nature
planned this law-if plan it she did
she was not reckoning on human hunt
ers, but on the war between beast and
beast. Just whether she did plan it or
not and just how far she carried it
are questions still in debate. Mr..
Thayer has critics who cannot follow
him the whole way, though it may be
noted in passing that he has not by any
means sought to assert an absolutely
universal application of his discovery
On the other hand, he has justified it
in an extraordinarily large number of
cases.
The examples at Knoedler's are all
of birds. Stencils are supplied in or
der that the student may place them
over the paintings, and in this way dis
cover precisely where the birds are.
On removing them the birds disap-
pear. In the "Winter Scene" (No ~
no stencil is needed. Here the pict-
ure is in part actually painted" with
the tails and wings of magpies. You
see at once how the feathers are vir-
tually lost against the background of
snow and evergreens. In other pict-
ures ducks, pheasants, bluejays and
railbirds are exhibited. Their traits
are almost miraculously obliterated by
their surroundings. The spectator un-
familiar with the subject might, per-
haps, suspect Mr.. Thayer of forcing
the note, of SO painting his picture as
to bring about an arbitrary fusion of
bird and background. To remove the
possibility of this error I may draw
upon a personal experience
Some years before the war went
down to Washington to witness
demonstration that Mr.. Thayer made
at the Smithsonian Institution. From
the collections there we borrowed a
number of stuffed birds, and, among
other specimens, small deer. Placed
here and there out in the grounds, in
shrubs, under trees or in the open,
these models lost their salience in
astounding measure. l remember a
ruby-tfroated humming bird deposited
in a bush. 1t was not artfully hidden.
In sense it remained in plain view.
But 80 far as seeing it was concerned
1t simply wasn't there. The expert
ments with the deer had one end in
view-to show that the white mark
ings on its rump, by which the animal
pursuing it might nominally be ex-
pectcd to keep it in sight, actually
served to battle the foe. They were
clearly visible as one stood But the
moment one lay fiat on the ground and
looked up at the marks as a panther
would. they blended with the sky. If
this helped to confuse observation of
an immobile model. imagine what it
would do when the deer was leaping
into the distance with incredible swift.
ness! There were some skeptics at
that Washington meeting, critics who
sought to meet Thayer's experiments
with the models he had at hand with
Inquiries on birds or beasts thousands
of miles away. They wanted if thew
were to be wholly convinced, the demon
stration Of an infailible law, which
might be counted upon to "work" any,
where under any conditions. Thayer
couldn't otfhand invoke quite that
magic. But what he showed on the spot
was Certainly conclusive, and the larger
scope of his book seemed to be borne
out by every one Of his Smithsonian
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