108 'I'm-: W'li.sdx Uulletix — No. 57. 



protection, ditl you say? The yuung" plovers simply disap- 

 peared the moment they stopped running'. 



Insistence upon the idea of color protection seems to have 

 been overdone in some cases, and the subject may never be 

 perfectly understood. In the woods and brush patches, where 

 hiding is so easy and color contrasts so abundant, there are 

 many apparent anomalies. For insta'nce, why should the 

 Green-tailed Towhee among the brush patches of the foothills 

 wear a coat of such a color which so blends with the foliage 

 as to render the bird nearly invisible while the Spurred Towhee 

 in the same habitat is very conspicuous as it darts through the 

 shrubbery? However, no matter what theories we may have 

 or how we ma}' disagree in our attempts to account for seem- 

 ing anomalies found where cover is plenty, when we reach the 

 open range we may at least agree on the great central fact that 

 the birds and mammals of the plains are rendered inconspicu- 

 ous and thus protected by their lack of conspicuous colors. 

 We are here dealing with facts, not theories. An animal the 

 size of an antelope, if it w-ere black or wliite, would instantly 

 attract the attention of every hunter, two-legged, four-legged 

 or winged, whereas, in its proper dress it is overlooked in the 

 majority of cases until it moves or spreads its flash disk, and 

 even the flash disk helps it to disappear when it suddenly at a 

 distance changes its course and "closes" the disk. The coyote 

 and jackrabbit are safe if thev keep their nerve and remain 

 quiet. This is true of the plains animals generally, but the 

 bison, which was in need of no such protection, was a con- 

 spicuous object — ves, was. for he is no longer conspicuous in 

 the land which once knew him. Among the plains birds the 

 Plover, Desert-Horned Lark, Vesper Sparrow and Lark Spar- 

 row are exceedingly difficult to distinguish until one flushes 

 them. In the sage brush near Slayton's Ranch. Brewer Spai- 

 rows blended so perfectly with the shrubbery that it required 

 sharp vision to Iccate them even when they were singing as if 

 to attract attention. 



Among the Tertiary bluffs of northern \\^eld County another 

 change of conditions takes place, accompanied by a change in 

 the avifauna. Abrupt blufifs rise from the plains, dissected by 

 gulches several hundred feet in depth, the rocky walls bearing 



