102 OUT WITH THE BIRDS 



villain-physiognomy it has ever been my fortune 

 to meet. But one bird was in the nest, the rest 

 apparently having just gone. He was long and 

 thin and fuzzy and sat up as straight as a picket. 

 His two downy horns were very stiff, as the oc- 

 casion demanded, and his eyes — it was very dark 

 in the place — glowered into mine with a tremen- 

 dously ferocious stare. No stage-villain ever 

 had such a make-up. 



But I soon found that after all he was a 

 harmless little chap whose only defensive trick, 

 other than his looks, was to scratch a bit; and I 

 found also that his picket-posture, like his stage- 

 face, was put on for the occasion. He had 

 elongated himself thus for a purpose. I did not 

 understand it then, but after visiting many long- 

 ear youngsters at home, and on one occasion 

 seeing two little fellows in a scrub oak, the ob- 

 ject served by this attenuating process became 

 plain. The baby grouse flattens himself among 

 the yellow leaves ; the bittern sticks his beak in the 

 air and thrusts up his neck like a stick; and for 

 the same reason the long-ear stretches himself, 

 for in so doing he resembles a slender tree bole, 

 or the tip of a stub. At a very little distance the 

 success of the ruse is apparent. 



