Editing Camouflage (section)

=== Countershading ===

{{main|Countershading}}

[[File:Countershading.svg|thumb|Countershading acts as a form of camouflage by 'painting out' the self-shadowing of the body or object. The result is a 'flat' appearance, instead of the 'solid' appearance of the body before countershading.]]

Countershading uses graded colour to counteract the effect of self-shadowing, creating an illusion of flatness. Self-shadowing makes an animal appear darker below than on top, grading from light to dark; countershading 'paints in' tones which are darkest on top, lightest below, making the countershaded animal nearly invisible against a suitable background.{{sfn|Cott|1940|pages=35–46}} Thayer observed that "Animals are painted by Nature, darkest on those parts which tend to be most lighted by the sky's light, and ''vice versa''". Accordingly, the principle of countershading is sometimes called ''Thayer's Law''.{{sfn|Forbes|2009|pages=72–73}} Countershading is widely used by [[terrestrial animals]], such as [[gazelle]]s<ref name=Kiltie>{{cite journal |last=Kiltie |first=Richard A. |title=Countershading: Universally deceptive or deceptively universal? |journal=Trends in Ecology & Evolution |date=January 1998 |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=21–23 |doi=10.1016/0169-5347(88)90079-1 |pmid=21227055 }}</ref> and grasshoppers; marine animals, such as [[sharks]] and [[Delphinus delphis|dolphins]];{{sfn|Cott|1940|page=41}} and birds, such as [[common snipe|snipe]] and [[dunlin]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.stanford.edu/group/stanfordbirds/text/essays/Color_of_Birds.html |title=The Color of Birds |publisher=Stanford University |year=1988 |access-date=1 February 2013 |author1=Ehrlich, Paul R. |author1-link=Paul R. Ehrlich |author2=Dobkin, David S. |author3=Wheye, Darryl}}</ref>{{sfn|Cott|1940|page=40}}

Countershading is less often used for military camouflage, despite Second World War experiments that showed its effectiveness. English [[zoologist]] [[Hugh Cott]] encouraged the use of methods including countershading, but despite his authority on the subject, failed to persuade the British authorities.{{sfn|Forbes|2009|pages=146–150}} Soldiers often wrongly viewed camouflage netting as a kind of invisibility cloak, and they had to be taught to look at camouflage practically, from an enemy observer's viewpoint.{{sfn|Forbes|2009|page=152}}{{sfn|Barkas|1952|page=36}} At the same time in [[Australia]], zoologist [[William John Dakin]] advised soldiers to copy animals' methods, using their instincts for wartime camouflage.{{sfn|Elias|2011|pages=57–66}}

The term countershading has a second meaning unrelated to "Thayer's Law". It is that the upper and undersides of animals such as sharks, and of some military aircraft, are different colours to match the different backgrounds when seen from above or from below. Here the camouflage consists of two surfaces, each with the simple function of providing concealment against a specific background, such as a bright water surface or the sky. The body of a shark or the fuselage of an aircraft is not gradated from light to dark to appear flat when seen from the side. The camouflage methods used are the matching of background colour and pattern, and disruption of outlines.<ref name=Kiltie/>

<gallery class="center" mode="nolines" heights="150px" widths="150px">
File:Gazella-dorcas.jpg|Countershaded [[Dorcas gazelle]], ''Gazella dorcas''
File:Tiburón.jpg|Countershaded [[grey reef shark]], ''Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos''
File:Thayers ships.jpg|Countershaded ship and submarine in [[Abbott Handerson Thayer|Thayer's]] 1902 patent application
File:Abbott thayer countershading.jpg|Two model birds painted by Thayer: painted in background colours on the left, countershaded and nearly invisible on the right
File:Focke-Wulf Fw 190D-9 outside USAF.jpg|Countershaded [[Focke-Wulf Fw 190D-9]]
</gallery>

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