CAMOUFLAGE

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12211, 8 August 1925, Page 16

CAMOUFLAGE

NATURE'S WAY. Many of us have seen the mysterious “dazzled” ships which played so great and strange a part in the baffling of the submarines, and we have wondered a little perhaps at the queer patterns which often seemed to make these' ships conspicuous On this subject there has been, indeed, a, widespread misunderstanding, for the primary meaning of the strange patterns was not to make the ship invisible, hut to make it difficult to detect how the ship’s boas were pointing. The strange pattern breaks up the form of the vessel, and experienced seamen have proved up to the hilt the value of the baffling lines. The dazzling effect will he all the greater •when the observer is taking a hast ;• glance through the periscope of a submarine. The, scheme throws an interesting light on some of the striking patterns of birds and beasts; we see that their utility is not necessarily in making their possessors invisible, as has generally been thought, hut in breaking uj the form...of the body so that the direction, of movement Ts difficult to determine. Thus the conspicuous white feathers about the tail of many onicklv flying birds may have this illusory effect. The other use of deceptive patterns is quite, different, and more familial. It .gives the .animal a garment ,of invisibility against an appropriate background. It is a ( kind of. camouflaging which has attained extraordinary perfection in the animal kingdom, seen, alt its best when a wooddeck settles down among the withered herbage of the wood and eudddnly becomes invisible. The elusivenese is sometimes attained in 'a simple way, for a iflottled greyish bird, lighter below than above, is singularly inconspicuous when standing on the sand of the seashore. The American artist, Mr Abbott 11. Thaver, who has. made a prolonged study of the colour of animals, has shown that patterns which seemed conspicuous to our eyes may be very inconspicuous to the eyes of the creature’s natural enemies or victims;: and. furthermore, j,hat the success of the concealment must always be fudged in reference to the common habitat of the creature in question. Each bird’s or bea.st’s costume, he says, is pur6 aceheryi What is to come from all the discoveries in ship-painting now that the War is overP It will not all be lost. Whereas before our painters would paint a long ship to make her lpok short, now they are trying to paint'nfl shins to look longer—to accentuate the outline and direction. This, it is thought, will make the vessels much •nore clearly visible, and reduce the risk of collision at sea.