Concealment.
WE will first take Concealment by means of Covering.
If History repeats herself, so does Warfare. I have already shown the repetition of History in the Fortress—I shall now show it in the Field.
In former days, when arms of precision were not invented, concealment was not needed. No soldier ever was visited with a dream so wild as that of taking definite aim at the enemy, and reserving the fire until the aim was certain. I have in my collection several of the French and English muskets used about the time of Waterloo, and, though a fair rifle-shot, would not engage to hit a haystack with either of them at a distance of a hundred yards. With the Snider or Martini-Henry in the hands of a skilful adversary, he would be a bold man who would offer himself for a target at a thousand yards. Indeed, if the first shot happened to miss, the marksman would be tolerably sure to notice the failure, and to correct his aim with fatal certainty.
In those days, therefore, concealment was rather ridiculed than praised, the power of the new arm not being as yet appreciated. I well recollect, in the earliest days of the Volunteer movement, hearing a Volunteer captain declare, amid the cheers of his company, that “he had never sneaked behind a tree in all his life, and was not going to begin now.”
In the present day, the power of the missile has been developed with such astounding rapidity, that to be exposed to the fire of rifles or cannon is almost certain death. Indeed, the only safety of the defence lay in the fact that the smoke soon rendered very accurate shooting impossible at long ranges, and that at short ranges, if a man got a bullet through his body, it mattered little to him whether the missile were a spherical musket-ball or a conical rifle-bullet.
Just, then, as forts have latterly sunk into the earth for the purpose of strength, so have our modern soldiers found that the true principle of modern warfare is never to lose sight of the enemy, and never to allow the enemy to see yourself or the disposal of your troops.
Everything must be revealed to the commander-in-chief, everything must be concealed from the enemy.
In the late Franco-German war the principle of concealment was largely used, and when cannon were brought into the field by the Germans for the purpose of attacking fortresses, they were always hidden under branches of trees, so that the enemy should not distinguish them from the ordinary features of the country, and that the sparkle of the sunbeams upon them might not be seen.
It would be almost superfluous to remind the reader of Malcolm’s stratagem when besieging Dunsinane Castle:—
“Let every soldier hew him down a bough,
And bear’t before him; thereby shall we shadow
The numbers of our host, and make discovery
Err in report of us.”
Precisely similar modes of concealment are to be found in the animal world.
There is a certain insect belonging to the Heteroptera, and scientifically named Reduvius personatus. I am not aware whether it has any popular name. It is insectivorous, and ought to be welcomed in houses, as it is particularly fond of the too common bed-bug. So carnivorous are these insects that one of the Reduviidæ killed and sucked a companion of her own sex, her own mate, and, after only a few days’ fast, her own young, and then sucked her own eggs.
During its larval and pupal stages of existence, the Reduvius covers its body and limbs with dust and any other refuse which it can find. In this manner it disguises its form so completely that it scarcely looks like an insect. Occasionally it seems to be dissatisfied with its coat of dust, throws it off, and sets to work at a new one.
One of these creatures, as it appears when covered with its dusty coating, is seen in the upper left-hand corner of the illustration. It is slightly magnified.
Below the Reduvius is the common Cuckoo-spit (Aphrophora spumaria), whose frothy masses are so plentiful in our hedgerows and gardens.
If one of these masses be carefully opened, there will be found in it a little green creature with small, round, dot-like eyes. This is either the larval or pupal state of the Frog-hopper, as the insect is called in its perfect state, from its habit of taking long and sudden leaps when alarmed.
I well remember my delight when, as a child, I set to work at examining these froth-masses, and succeeded in tracing the insect through all its changes. The froth is derived from the sap of the tree, which is sucked through the proboscis, passed through the digestive organs, and then ejected in a succession of little bubbles. After awhile a little drop of clear liquid is seen to collect at the bottom of the froth, to increase, and then to fall, when another immediately begins to be formed. One species of Cuckoo-spit, which inhabits Madagascar, acts almost like a siphon on the tree, and pours out large quantities of clear water during the hottest part of the day.
Within this froth-mass the insect lies concealed, and, though utterly helpless, is safe from most of the enemies that would attack it if it were left exposed.
Beneath the Cuckoo-spit is the common Spider-crab, sometimes called the Thornback-crab, from the numerous spines with which its body is covered. Its scientific name is Maia squinado.
When the Spider-crab attains to a tolerable size, its rough surface forms attachment for various marine beings, chiefly those belonging to the zoophytes. In some cases these zoophytes grow to such a size that the Crab is completely covered by them, and its original shape effectually concealed. When one of these creatures is seen in a living state it presents the curious spectacle of a large bunch of zoophytes and corallines moving about from place to place without any perceptible limbs, the whole of the surface of the Crab being covered with extraneous growths.