camouflage egg / do not begrudge conscientious fowl

Grant Wood, The Appraisal (1931)

Anon, HERE AND THERE in Country Life, January 1919—

Just because the hen has somehow gotten the reputation for being a stupid, flighty, indecisive creature is no reason, it appears, for denying her the right to deep-seated likes and dislikes. And sometimes we find these where we would least expect them, as did the Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station when it started an investigation into the relative efficiency of different kinds of nest eggs. As a result of exhaustive tests and careful compilation of data, it was found that above all other types of "camouflage egg" the hen prefers one made of plaster of paris; next in order of acceptability come wooden eggs; next after that real eggs; and lowest of all in popularity stand china eggs, probably the best known and most commonly used. By just what means the investigators interpreted the feelings of their subjects in the matter we do not know; nor does it matter. The point is: so long as the material used has no deleterious effect on the food or other value of the ultimate progeny of the bird, why begrudge the industrious, conscientious fowl the greatest possible solace and contentment during those weeks that she spends in calm, contemplative creation!

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Anon, CAMOUFLAGE IN THE WOOD in Brecon County Times, Neath Gazette and General Advertiser (Wales), September 7, 1918 (Supplement)—

The drafting of men for military service has brought to light some queer occupations, but surely none more out of the ordinary than that of the man who makes imitation pheasant eggs. A man before a Surrey Tribunal said his job was to make an egg which hoodwinked the sitting pheasant. The real eggs were transferred to a broody hen's keeping until near the time of hatching, and the hen pheasant kept at her job by means of the artificial "eggs." Then the real eggs were brought back to be hatched out by a mother who could look after them. These artificial "eggs," it seems, mislead the hen pheasant entirely, and cause foxes, hedgehogs and such marauders furiously to think. It seems rather like a yarn, but the Tribunal accepted it, and gave the man six months' exemption.

Also see: Mimicry, Metaphor and Mistake

the perils of counterfeiting / a George H. Blair cartoon

Above This is a camouflage-related cartoon from 1918. It was drawn by George H. Blair, who was a Boston-area newspaper artist and cartoonist. I don’t know where it was first published (this is a restored and rearranged version) but it may have been the Boston Globe. Blair was not a camoufleur, and the relevance of this cartoon and camouflage may be a stretch. Someone in the cartoon—namely Uncle Zeke’s ram Old Ben—has been hoodwinked into thinking that a painting of a ram is the same as the thing itself, a counterfeit. My friend and colleague of many years, plant ecologist Paul Whitson and I once collaborated on an essay that addressed the same subject, titled “Mimicry, Metaphor and Mistake,” which can be accessed here online.

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EASY MONEY ADOPTS OLD STUNT: Takes Dollar Bills and Makes Tens Out of Them: Neat Piece of Work: Camouflaged Bill Discovered Today at Bank Where It Was Deposited—Report Made to US Treasury in Alexandria Gazette (Alexandria VA) November 7, 1919—

Making tens out of ones is the art some enterprising Alexandrian just now is engaged in. In other words the guilty party is taking Uncle Sam's perfectly good one dollar bills and converting them into $10 bills.

The deception was discovered this morning when a victim of the clever camouflage presented the supposed $10 with his usual morning bank deposit.

The counterfeiter it was admitted had done a rather clever piece of work which while it might not pass the average banker it certainly would fool the average busy merchant.

The master camouflager had taken the edges of four ten dollar bilk and cut off a sufficient part from each one to make the figure naught and to all intents and purposes had produced a perfectly good ten dollar bill by using a little glue to help complete the deception.

The bank officials have made a report of the work of the counterfeiter and efforts probably will be made by the Secret Service men to chase the frenzied financier down. 

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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

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