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''Concealing-Coloration in the Animal Kingdom: An Exposition of the Laws of Disguise Through Color and Pattern; Being a Summary of Abbott H. Thayer’s Discoveries'' is a book published ostensibly by Gerald H. Thayer in 1909, and revised in 1918, but in fact a collaboration with and completion of his father Abbott Handerson Thayer's major work. The book, illustrated artistically by Abbott Thayer, sets out the controversial thesis that all animal coloration has the evolutionary purpose of camouflage. Thayer rejected Charles Darwin's theory of sexual selection, arguing in words and paintings that even such conspicuous animal features as the peacock's tail or the brilliant pink of flamingoes or roseate spoonbills were effective as camouflage in the right light. The book introduced the concepts of disruptive coloration to break up an object's outlines, of masquerade, as when a butterfly mimics a leaf, and especially of countershading, where an animal's tones make it appear flat by concealing its self-shadowing. The book was criticised by big game hunter and politician Theodore Roosevelt for its central assertion that every aspect of animal coloration is effective as camouflage. Roosevelt's detailed reply attacked the biased choice of examples to suit Abbott Thayer's thesis and the book's reliance on unsubstantiated claims in place of evidence. The book was more evenly criticised by zoologist and camouflage researcher Hugh Cott, who valued Thayer's work on countershading but regretted his overenthusiastic attempts to explain all animal coloration as camouflage. Thayer was mocked to a greater or lesser extent by other scientific reviewers. ==Overview== Abbott Thayer (1849-1921) was an American artist, known for his figure paintings, often of "virginal, spiritual beauty", which were sometimes, as in his most famous painting, ''Angel'', modeled on his children.〔Meryman, 1999.〕 He had studied at an art school in Paris, but unlike James McNeill Whistler he returned to the United States. Along with seeking timeless beauty, Thayer also became obsessed with nature, which he felt contained the pure beauty that he was seeking to capture in his paintings.〔 Thayer's close observation led him to notice what scientists such as Edward Bagnall Poulton were just beginning to describe.〔Poulton, 1890.〕 This was that many animals were "painted" the opposite way to how painters create the appearance of solidity in figures. A canvas is flat, and areas of uniform color painted on a canvas also appear flat. To make a body appear to have depth and solidity, the artist paints in shadows on the body itself. The top of an animal's back, facing the sky, remains bright, while it must become darker towards its underside. Thayer was excited to realize that by reversing such shading, nature could and did make animals appear flat. He was so passionate about this "concealing coloration" theory that he called it his "second child".〔 Poulton had noticed countershading in certain caterpillars, but he had not realized that the phenomenon was widespread, and he championed Thayer's theory in a 1902 article in ''Nature''.〔Forbes, 2008. p. 74.〕 However, Thayer was not a scientist, and he lacked a scientist's inclination to attempt to test and disprove every aspect of a new theory.〔 Instead, Thayer came to believe that the theory belonged to artists, with their trained perception: "The whole basis of picture making consists in contrasting against its background every object in the picture", he argued.〔 The obsession led him to deny that animals could be colored for other reasons: for protection by mimicry, as the naturalist Henry Walter Bates had proposed, supported by many examples of butterflies from South America; through sexual selection, as Charles Darwin had argued, again supported by many observations. The unbalanced treatment of animal coloration in ''Concealing-Coloration in the Animal Kingdom'' encapsulates Thayer's partial understanding and his rejection of other theories.〔Forbes, 2008. pp. 73-84.〕 The same obsession led him, later, to attempt to persuade the military to adopt camouflage based on his ideas, traveling to London in 1915, and writing "passionate letters" to the Assistant Secretary to the US Navy, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in 1917.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Concealing-Coloration in the Animal Kingdom」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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