seasonal animal tracks / fox and vixen flirt and play

Above Book jacket for Judith Krantz, Dazzle. NY: Crown, 1990.

•••

Sy Montgomery, Seasons of the Wild: A Year of Nature's Magic and Mysteries. Buffalo NY: Firefly Books, 1995, p. 74—

In January and February’s snows, fox tracks tell stories more vivid than any other North American mammal’s. To the novice tracker, following a coyote is as daunting as reading a Proustian tome. But this time of year, fox tracks are the Judith Krantz novels of animal tracking: in them you’ll find fast-paced, easy-to-read love stories. In these winter months, fox and vixen flirt and play, cementing and renewing pair-bonds that usually last as long as both survive.

RELATED LINKS 

Dazzle Camouflage: What is it and how did it work? /  Nature, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Women's Rights, and Camouflage /  Embedded Figures, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Gestalt, and Camouflage /  Optical science meets visual art /  Disruption versus dazzle / Chicanery and conspicuousness /  Under the big top at Sims' circus

a primer of visual literacy—including basic camouflage

book cover

Donis A. Dondis, A Primer of Visual Literary. Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 1973, p. 56—

Most of our textural experience is optical, not tactile. Not only is texture faked rather convincingly in plastics and printed material and faked fur, but, also, much of what we see that is painted, photographed, and filmed convincingly presents texture that is not there. If we touch a photograph of silky velvet, we do not have the convincing tactile experience the visual clues promise. Meaning is based on what we see. This fakery is an important factor in survival in nature; animals, birds, reptiles, insects, fish, take on the coloration and texture of their surroundings as a protection against predators. Man copies this camouflage method in war in response to the same needs for survival that inspires it in nature.

RELATED LINKS 

Dazzle Camouflage: What is it and how did it work? /  Nature, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Women's Rights, and Camouflage /  Embedded Figures, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Gestalt, and Camouflage /  Optical science meets visual art /  Disruption versus dazzle / Chicanery and conspicuousness /  Under the big top at Sims' circus

firm evidence / when you find a killer whale in the milk

Above Anon, Killer Whale in morning coffee. Pixabay, public domain (2016).

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THERE IS a postwar issue of Field and Stream magazine (September 1922) which includes an article by Major Lawrence Mott (Jordan Lawrence Mott IV (1881–1931)), titled "A Morning with Killer Whales," pp. 340ff. In discussing Killer Whales (Orca), it compares their coloration to the "strange" ship camouflage in World War I, and even to the costume of a harlequin. Here's the excerpt—

In the dull light the sharp black, and the very white white of the fish markings made them seem as grotesque creatures from some unknown sphere—and they also reminded one of the strange ways that paint was applied to ships' sides—for the purposes of camouflage—during the late war. The curious part of it was that no two of the Killers were marked alike—as far as we could see—and, at times, one or more of them passed us not forty feet away! Some had long white stripes—mid-body. Others had splashes of white all along their sides. A large bull…had a white saddle just abaft his back fin… Another's head was almost entirely white, and still another was evenly marked in black and white—much as the costume of a Pierrot.

•••

Henry David Thoreau, Journal (1850)—

Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk.

RELATED LINKS 

Dazzle Camouflage: What is it and how did it work? /  Nature, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Women's Rights, and Camouflage /  Embedded Figures, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Gestalt, and Camouflage /  Optical science meets visual art /  Disruption versus dazzle / Chicanery and conspicuousness /  Under the big top at Sims' circus

familiar examples of camouflage in modern motordom

Monte Sohn [later inventor of Borden's trademark Elsie the Cow], in the Washington Times. Saturday, September 1, 1917, Final Edition, p. 6—

Camouflage? Pish! Motorists have known it for years. For almost a dozen calendars, owners of cars have camouflaged license numbers before invading hostile territory in which the wily robber baron had his speed trap by the simple—as the writers say—expedient of sprinkling it with oil. Mrs. Nature, aided by the dust of the road, did the rest.

Then there are the pietry cutouts they slip on small cars which makes the veriest purr sound like the evening ensemble on the western front.

Special bodies have contributed much to the scheme of camouflage as motordom has known it. Some of these most effectually disguise a car. One particular body, with a pointed radiator and bright brass fittings makes a light car look exactly like a Ford.

Goggles. Are they not splendid camouflage!

And who would suspect that a motorcycle with a lady on the rear would have a country bull with a star on his suspenders riding on the front seat?

Camouflage!

Very ancient stuff.

RELATED LINKS 

Dazzle Camouflage: What is it and how did it work? /  Nature, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Women's Rights, and Camouflage /  Embedded Figures, Art, and Camouflage / Art, Gestalt, and Camouflage /  Optical science meets visual art /  Disruption versus dazzle / Chicanery and conspicuousness /  Under the big top at Sims' circus