Hugh B. Cott | |
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 Formal portrait, probably in 1945 when he became a fellow of Selwyn College.Courtesy ofSelwyn College, Cambridge | |
| Born | Hugh Bamford Cott (1900-07-06)6 July 1900 Ashby Magna,Leicestershire, England |
| Died | 18 April 1987(1987-04-18) (aged 86) Stoke Abbott, Dorset, England |
| Nationality | English |
| Alma mater | Selwyn College, Cambridge University of Glasgow |
| Known for | Camouflage,Countershading |
| Spouse | Joyce Radford |
| Children | 1 |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Zoology |
| Institutions | Selwyn College, Cambridge |
| Thesis | The Problem of Adaptive Coloration with Special Reference to theAnura (1938) |
| Doctoral advisor | John Graham Kerr |
Hugh Bamford Cott (6 July 1900 – 18 April 1987) was a Britishzoologist, an authority on both natural and militarycamouflage, and a scientific illustrator andphotographer. Many of his field studies took place inAfrica, where he was especially interested in theNile crocodile, the evolution of pattern and colour in animals. During theSecond World War, Cott worked as a camouflage expert for the British Army and helped to influence War Office policy on camouflage. His bookAdaptive Coloration in Animals (1940), popular among serving soldiers, was the major textbook on camouflage in zoology of the twentieth century. After the war, he became a Fellow ofSelwyn College, Cambridge. As a Fellow of the Zoological Society of London, he undertook expeditions to Africa and the Amazon to collect specimens, mainly reptiles and amphibians.
Cott was born inAshby Magna,Leicestershire,England, on 6 July 1900; his father was therector there.[1] He was schooled atRugby. In 1919, he graduated from theRoyal Military College, Sandhurst, and was commissioned into theLeicestershire Regiment. Between 1922 and 1925, he studied atSelwyn College,Cambridge.[2]
He had intended to become a priest, and went to Cambridge to read theology, but after his first year he went on the university expedition toSouth America, where he studied natural forms in easternBrazil in 1923, led by theentomologistFrank Balfour Browne, where he became fascinated bynatural history, and changed his studies to zoology on his return.[3] He then went on an expedition to the lowerAmazon (1925–1926), and on research trips to theZambesi river area inAfrica (1927),[4] includingMozambique,Zambia andEast Africa, andLanzarote (1930). He married Joyce Radford in 1928. He was a lecturer in zoology atBristol University from 1928 until 1932, when he moved toGlasgow University. He studied under another advocate ofmilitary camouflage,John Graham Kerr. His thesis, which he completed in 1935 under aCarnegie Fellowship, was on 'adaptive coloration' – both camouflage andwarning coloration – in theAnura (frogs).[5] In 1938 he was made aDoctor of Science at Glasgow, and he became a Zoology lecturer atCambridge University and Strickland Curator of Birds at theuniversity's Museum of Zoology.[5][6][7]
Cott served in the Leicestershire Regiment of theBritish Army[8] as a camouflage expert from 1919 to 1922, and, during theSecond World War, with theRoyal Engineers as a camouflage instructor from 1939 to 1945.[5][9] Cott was chief instructor at theCamouflage Development and Training Centre atHelwan,Egypt, under filmmakerGeoffrey Barkas from its inception in November 1941.[10]
After the war, Cott returned to Cambridge, becoming a Fellow of Selwyn College in 1945; he worked there until he retired in 1967.[11] He gave the Fison Memorial Lecture of 1958 on 'Protective Coloration in Animals'.[12] He continued to work from time to time after his retirement, for instance conducting a survey ofcrocodile nests on the VictoriaNile for theUganda National Parks in 1972.[13][14] He died at the age of 86 on 18 April 1987.[2]
While trying to photograph a henpartridge on her nest, Cott waited for hours for the bird to return, finally taking some pictures of the empty nest before giving up. On developing the photographs, he realized the bird had been there all along, perfectly camouflaged.[15]
As acamouflage expert during theSecond World War, Cott likened the functions ofmilitary camouflage to those ofprotective coloration in nature. The three main categories of coloration in his bookAdaptive Coloration in Animals areconcealment,disguise, andadvertisement. He studied, described and presented examples of such diverse camouflage effects asobliterative shading,disruption, differential blending, high contrast,coincident disruption,concealment of the eye, contour obliteration,shadow elimination, and mimicry. In his wartime lectures atFarnham Castle, he described nine categories of visualdeception:[16]
Cott's account of all this (illustrated by his own pen and ink drawings) is the 550-page bookAdaptive Coloration in Animals (1940).[18] It was proof-read by Kerr, who commented on its publication 'It is by far the finest thing of the kind in existence'.[19] His co-workers' first-hand accounts of his work in military camouflage can be found in the memoirs of two of his fellow camoufleurs:Julian Trevelyan[20] andRoland Penrose.[21]
Peter Forbes wrote of Cott's book:[22]
Cott'sAdaptive Coloration in Animals must be the only compendious zoology tract ever to be packed in a soldier's kitbag. The book also marks the apotheosis of the descriptivenatural history phase of mimicry studies. Although Cott does report experiments on predation to test the efficacy of mimicry and camouflage, the book is essentially a narrative of examples plus theory.[22]
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The book was written as war loomed, and published in wartime. Cott makes use of his knowledge of natural history to draw parallels between survival in nature and in war,[24] and to advise on military camouflage, for example commenting:
Various recent attempts to camouflage tanks, armoured cars, and the roofs of buildings with paint reveal an almost complete failure by those responsible to grasp the essential factor in the disguise of surface continuity and contour … in nature vigorous disruptive contrasts are frequently seen at work, and their wonderful effectiveness in hindering recognition needs to be experienced in the field to be fully appreciated.[23]
Forbes notes thatAdaptive Coloration in Animals is a narrative, short on the experimentation that followed after the war, but Forbes continues:[22]
But Cott's book is still valuable today for its enormous range, for its passionate exposition of the theories of mimicry and camouflage.[22]
Cott attempted to persuade the British army to use more effective camouflage techniques, including countershading. For example, in August 1940, with theBattle of Britain imminent, he painted two rail-mounted coastal guns, one in conventional style, onecountershaded. Inaerial photographs, the countershaded gun is essentially invisible.[17] Cott was triumphant, announcing:[17]
These photographs furnish most convincing proof of the effectiveness of countershading, and are especially valuable in that we have in them a direct comparison between the two methods.
However (like Kerr before him in the First World War), Cott did not succeed in influencing policy on camouflage, and he resigned from the Camouflage Advisory Panel in 1940.[25]
Cott was a founding member of theSociety of Wildlife Artists, and a fellow of theRoyal Photographic Society.[5] From material gathered in field expeditions, he made contributions to the Cambridge University zoological museum.
Cott possessed considerable artistic skill. LikeAbbott Thayer, he used his artistry in his scientific work, including inAdaptive Coloration in Animals, to help argue the case he was making.[22] For example, his black-and-white potoo shows this rainforest bird sitting motionless on a mottled tree trunk, its behaviour and disruptive pattern combining to provide effective camouflage. The philosopher and jazz musicianDavid Rothenberg wrote of Cott's art:[26]
Back to Hugh Cott's marvelous engraving of apotoo hidden in a black and whiteCosta Rican forest, frozen vertically like the tree trunk on which it hides. In nature the visible and invisible dance back and forth with each other, depending on how much we have learned to see. The science and art of this magic merge into one at the moment we grasp it.[26]
In addition toAdaptive Coloration in Animals, Cott wrote two essays on camouflage: “Camouflage in nature and in war”[27] and ”Animal form in relation to appearance”.[28] As a scientific illustrator and photographer, he also wrote three other books:Zoological photography in practice (1956);Uganda in black and white (1959); andLooking at animals: a zoologist in Africa (1975). He became interested in the relationship of bird colours with their role as warning colours, an idea that arose when he observed hornets attracted to some birds being skinned while ignoring others. This led him to study the palatability of birds and their eggs. Among his papers were several studies on the relative palatibility of the eggs based initially on the preferences of ferrets, rats and hedgehogs and later on the use of a panel of expert egg tasters. In one study he found that of 123 species of bird, thekittiwake eggs scored highly with 8.2 out of 10.[29][30][31][32]
Forbes praised Cott's balance of science and artistry:[22]
..in the conflict between artists and biologists, he was both. Cott was a competent illustrator as well as a biologist. Without havingNabokov's precisianism and anti-Darwinism, he brought an artistic sensibility to bear on these phenomena. His text is radiant with the wonder of theseadaptations.[22]
Over 60 years after its publication,Adaptive Coloration in Animals remains a core reference on the subject; theevolutionary biologistsGraeme Ruxton,Thomas N. Sherratt and Michael Speed conclude their book onanimal coloration by writing
The study of animal coloration and associatedanti-predator adaptations has a long history... this field of research has been blessed from the earliest years with the insights of particularly gifted scientists. The writings ofWallace,Bates,Müller,Poulton and Cott truly stand up to the test of time: these individuals deserve even better renown not just as greatnatural historians but as exceptional scientists too.[33]
The biologistSteven Vogel commented that:[34]
The zoologist Hugh Cott had the final word inAdaptive Coloration in Animals (1940), a definitive synthesis of everything known aboutcamouflage andmimicry in nature. Cott ruffled fewer feathers [thanTrofim Lysenko orVladimir Nabokov], and his well-organized and unfanatic ideas proved militarily effective, even under the scrutiny of improved techniques for target detection.Thayer’s principles reemerged in more temperate and rational terms, and camouflage schemes based on them survived both photometric analyses and enemy encounters.Biomimetic camouflage took its place as yet another technique in a sophisticated armamentarium of visual deceptions.
An exhibition of his art, writing, and photographs, 'Life, Lines & Illusion', was held at theNature in Art gallery inGloucester in September and October 2018.[35]
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