1885-86.] Edinburgh Naturalists' Field Chib. 307 



on the summit of the rock, from which coign of vantage he had no 

 doubt been watching all the time, with a jealous eye, the intruder 

 upon his haunts. 



It is rather curious, when we turn our thoughts upon the sub- 

 ject, how so many birds and animals resemble, in a general sense, 

 the hues of surrounding objects ; and yet if the shades of their 

 feathers or other outside covering are compared with the colour- 

 ings that pervade the material objects in the immediate vicinity, 

 they are quite dissimilar. It seems to me that this can be ac- 

 counted for easily enough in the following manner. If you take 

 a bird itself whose plumage is not marked by violent contrasts — 

 such as pure black and white, or other opposite characteristics — 

 you will find on close examination that its feathers are composed 

 of various tones and shades of colour ; yet when we retire to a 

 short distance these blend together, and the owner thereof seems 

 to be of one uniform shade. Very much the same effect is pro- 

 duced when an ordinarily dull-plumaged bird sits upon the ground : 

 the rocks, the soil, the grass, the heather, and the bird are all 

 different when taken separately — but collectively, a general sim- 

 ilarity of hue affects the whole, and the latter merges, so to speak, 

 into the general tone, and is lost. This, of course, is purely theo- 

 retical, and to some of you it may appear a very questionable 

 theory indeed. The plumage is not unlike that of the Blackbird, 

 wdth this difference, that the feathers of the male are not so jetty 

 black, and the margins are more or less edged with grey : the 

 white gorget, again, is a distinguishing feature ; the bill also is 

 not so brilliant in the orange, and the point of it is black. The 

 female is browner in shade, like the corresponding sex of the 

 Blackbird ; the points of the feathers have a tendency to be greyer 

 than those of the male ; the white neckcloth is not so wide, and is 

 mingled largely with brownish feathers, which detract from the 

 pure white. At first the young have no white across the breast, 

 but in a short time the cocks begin to show a faint indication that 

 some day it will appear more prominently ; but in the young hens 

 there is no trace of it for a long time after they are fledged. Before 

 the brood is hatched it would be hard to find a shyer species, or 

 one more difficult to approach. The open nature of the ground 

 frequented gives it such admirable opportunities for keeping a 

 look-out and acting on the defensive, that once it observes you are 

 bent upon following it up, it will lead you such a dance that in 

 the long-run, after hours of hunting, you are forced from very 

 weariness to give up the chase ; and if you are human at all, your 

 stock of patience will have long ere that issue flown to the winds 

 along with your temper. It will sit upon a knoll or rock, out of 

 gunshot, however, giving vent to an angry chuckling note, and as 

 you close up, off it flies to another. You follow, and away it starts 



