PROTECTION BY COLOR. 



The problem of safety, as we learned some time ago, put a 

 premium upon a bird whose color helped him to pass unob- 

 served. It was a very pretty theory, but we are to see how it 

 works in practice. When we think of the red and blue and 

 yellow birds we know, it seems hard to realize that they are 

 included in any such design ; when we think of the odd- 

 colored ornaments that birds wear, bands, crescents, stripes, 

 and patches, often of the most brilliant hues, we fail to under- 

 stand why such markings are not a sure clew to discovery; 

 when we recollect how unlike the different sexes of the same 

 bird often are, and how frequently young birds are very dis- 

 similar to their parents both in colors and markings, we must 

 think that it is a poor law that does^not apply to all the birds 

 of one species, but explains the plumage of one age or sex, and 

 leaves the others still unaccounted for. 



We cannot go into all the details of this subject, — even 

 men of science are agreed to dispute about them, — but we can 

 at least notice among the birds of our acquaintance instances 

 where their color helps to conceal them from our eyes. If all 

 our sparrows, for example, had blue or red backs, how much 

 more readily we should discover them ; for sparrows have a 

 way of staying near the ground, either directly upon it, or in 

 low bushes, or about fences, where a bright-colored back and 

 breast would serve to distinguish them instantly. Now most 

 of our common sparrows, we find, are dull-colored little birds 

 varied with stripes about the back, breast, and head that seem 



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