PROTECTIVE COLORATION. 181 



iljuman being. If there is anj^ value in this " protective resemblance," 

 how is it that Redshanks and Snipes, which belong to the same family, 

 and lay similarly coloured and marked eggs, have so little faith in it 

 that they hide their eggs in tufts of grass, and in the case of the former 

 Avhen nesting on the beach lays its eggs in the centre of a sloe bush ? 

 Since writing the above I happened to be reading Field ami Hedijcroa-, by 

 Richard Jeffries, a very careful observer, and I find he comes to the same 

 ■conclusion with regard to the supposed "protective resemblance "of shore 

 birds' eggs, and has a very interesting chapter, pages 251-254, on the 

 above subject; his remarks strike me as practical and full of common 

 sense. I once found a Wren's nest built where tree trunks, branches, 

 fences, posts, etc., were covered with lichen, and the birds had used 

 the lichen to cover their nest. What marvellous instinct and what a 

 splendid case of " protective resemblance," says someone. Yet ic is 

 alread}' discovered by a mere human being, and is much more easily 

 found by its natural enemies. The birds had simply taken the 

 materials to hand as does another bird that uses pieces of paper strewn 

 in a paperchase, the nest thus being most conspicuous. A case is on 

 record of a bird's nest in India being made of wire from lemonade, 

 etc., bottles. 



Mr. Curtis misquotes me and fathers me with a " bloomer." He 

 says, " Mr. Colthrup surmises that birds rely on their beaks when 

 looking for insects." He leaves out the word "also" beforb rely, and 

 quite overlooks the fact that I was speaking of Tits only, thus making 

 it appear that I was speaking of birds generally. I should have 

 treated this as a clerical error, but for the fact that he is at pains to 

 show that various birds rely "on eye." Of course they do, surely no 

 one doubts that. Mr. Curtis corrects me, and says that Tits do not 

 search tree trunks. In this he is quite wa'ong. I have often watched 

 them go carefully all over rough tree trunks both in the open and in 

 my garden, where two old oak trunks are a regular hunting ground 

 for Cole and Blue Tits, whereas the Robin confines his opei'ations to 

 quite near the ground, or only where some ivy gives him a foothold. 



With regard to the beak of the Tit, it is a far more useful and 

 deadly instrument than Mr. Curtis appears to think. Recently I 

 watched, at close quarters, a Great Tit endeavouring to crack a very 

 hard seed with its beak, which it eventually succeeded in doing. It 

 held the seed between its feet, and the noise it made as it delivered 

 blow after blow in quick succession, was nearly equal to that made by 

 a Woodpecker. I once saw a Tit at work on a tree trunk, and on going 

 to investigate, found it had cleaned out the contents of a "kitten" 

 cocoon — another dig at " protective resemblance" — as exemplified by 

 the cocoon. The Great Tit also has the vicious habit of attacking 

 birds about its own size, and with repeated blows on the skull of the 

 unfortunate victim, it succeeds in smashing it, and then devours the 

 brains. So much for the beak. With regard to his remark on the 

 Tit's eye, "s»c/i a scrutiny that one woidd almost think that tlie most 

 jierfect cnjptic coloration ivould fail to defij it," I quite agree and — exit 

 ■*' protective resemblance." 



With regard to his query as to whether Lieut. -Col. Alanders and 

 myself understand the psychology of the birds themselves, answering 

 for myself I should say that I imagine I know as much of the psychology 



