NEST BUILDING 291 



If there were any such thing as "instinct" in 

 this matter, these inconspicuous birds, perfect ex- 

 amples of protective colouration, would be the 

 ones to live t>y roadside and stream, where their 

 colour would save their lives; and the bright birds 

 would hide in deep wood and slip around un- 

 noticed, for every flash of their gay colour in a pub- 

 lic place is a challenge to unprincipled gunners. 

 But who ever heard of a cardinal "slipping" in 

 any location? He is generally in the most con- 

 spicuous place, displaying himself before men. It 

 seems as if the bobolink dances on the fences, and 

 literally rubs himself into one's attention. Every 

 brilliant bird is out where he will show, and if one 

 does not see him, he manages to make sufficient 

 disturbance or call one's attention with his song. 

 Did you ever see a peacock after his tail had been 

 plucked? I have known them to be so ashamed, 

 so humbled over their loss that they hide until 

 they almost starve to death before they will show 

 themselves in the open to take food. Does any- 

 one, who has ever seen a peacock strut, doubt that 

 the bird is proud of his tail or that he suffers near 

 to death on losing it? Birds of the open evolved 

 in the open. Their native food and nest locations 

 are there. Bright light produced the gay plumage 

 on birds, just as it produced the strongest yellows, 

 reds, and blues on flower faces of the open swamps 

 and fields, and kept the fragile, pale ones in deep 

 shade. 



