New-York tribune., 1921-06-05
I'm Action
Thayer and Group of Scien-
lists

Thayer and Group of Scien-
lists
l found the book absorbing, and not
long afterward the opportunity came
to observe its principles in operation.
In the fall of 1910 Thayer wrote me:
81 wish SO much you could by some
Wild chance be present when I show
the doubling ornithologists, ETC., the
concealing power of brilliant costumes
Outdoors, of course), beginning at 9
a. m. at the Smithsonian in Washing
ton next week" The chance was one
to seize and | met Thayer, pottering
over the specimens at the Smithsonian
with him as he chose the few which
he deemed sufficient for the first
seance. l remember among the feath-
cred examples marvellous ruby
throated humming bird, but our prn-
cipal and quite unforgettable exhibit
was young stuffed prongbuck, worn
by Thayer like yoke over his head
and shoulders as we marched forth to
meet the enemy. Perhaps "enemy" is
not altogether the right word. The
scientists brought together under that
sunny but chill November sky were
not inimical to the demonstrators pur-
pose. But neither were they noticeably
sympathetic. 1t was not asking too
much of them to ask them to look at
the humming bird, set within a bush,
and to note how it seemed mystically
to disappear. But they baked at lying
down on their stomachs in public and
gazing up at the stern of the deer to
see the white patches thereon. If they
would do this, Thayer told them, they
would see how when an animal pursu-
ing the prongbuck draws near his prey
and the quarry leaps into the air there
is an instant during which those white
patches are merged into the sea of
light that falls from the sky. In that
instant the pursuer may miss his
stroke and while recovering himself
give the prongbuck that much of
chance to recover also and continue it's
ul6AC. uS u ia O4 Vic lidVtSI io eiiAS
the patches must identify themselves
with the sky and that they only do so
when the eyes following them look up
at them against the sky.
Thayer himself gave years and un-
Imaginable patience to the testing of
those principles on which he laid such
store, and it hurt when people failed
to meet him half way. There were
questions on that morning in Wash
ington. He answered them eagerly and,
SO far as l could judge, decisively.
His demonstration was, to me, COM
plete. cannot say that the rest were
fatty skeptical, but neither were they
ardent, and as we went back to the
museum, bringing the specimens with
us, Thayer exploded wrathfully, not so
much against the ornithologists we had
just left as against the whole world
of doubling Thomases. l speak of 1T
now not to recall an old moment of
disappointment for him, but because
the incident seemed to bring out some
thing very characteristic of Thayer.
have called him, in these things of a
naturalist, the scientist He never
stopped being an artist, lover OF
beauty. This was what made him SO
sensitive to an attitude of coldness
toward his claw" The law, for him:
was one of the most gloriously excit-
ing things in the world, new key to
exquisite things. He couldn't under
stand why an elderly and not precisely
slender ornithologist should object to
extending himself upon the grass in
public place with his eyes directed at
the behind END of stuffed deer Down
himself in the mud without qualm so
that he might watch the famingo in
its rose-fushed costume melting into
background of rosy sky. He was watch
ing more than fact, he was watch
ing a "big magic" and the artist in
him was thrilled. He grumbled, at
Washington, as / have said But the
image of him that stays in my mind
is that of dreamer, with a kind of
sweet wistfulness about him.
He was tireless in his efforts to
make others see the truth as he had
seen it. | was convinced when I had
first read the book, but he wanted me
to get closer and closer to his law.
From Monadnock he wrote: "Why don't
you come up here as you promised?
! will show you my artificial zebra,