EXPERIMENTS ON PROTECTIVE COLORATION 495 



die Raiipe iind den Schmetterling; ebenso sicher erkennen wie der 

 Adler aus gewaltip;er Hohe den Hasen oder das Murmeltiei- auf gleich- 

 farbigem Boden? 



This assumption however lacks supporting evidence, and the 

 experiments here cited tend to disprove it. True it is that 

 raptorial birds frequently sail at great heights, but how many 

 instances are on record of their swooping down from these heights 

 to seize their prey? Furthermore anyone who has observed a 

 hawk hovering in the air evidently in pursuit of prey, will realize 

 that it is in all probability the movement of the latter which 

 enables the hawk to follow and finally to seize it. This con- 

 clusion is supported by my own observations and experiments 

 just cited. 



I have observed numerous cases of ducks flying within gun- 

 shot of a hunter lying or sitting motionless upon the ground, 

 without any blind to screen him from their sight. No sooner 

 does the hunter rise to shoot however or the ducks come near 

 enough to see him than they immediately swerve from their 

 course and either turn back, or more often make a wide detour 

 to avoid the threatened danger; proving that it is not fearlessness 

 that brings them into danger, but inability to see a man close 

 to the ground in a motionless posture, or at least to distinguish 

 him from his surroundings. 



In this connection the occasional records of birds seizing 

 wooden decoys are of interest. Lawrence ('66, p. 279) says of 

 the duck hawk (Falco anatum) 'T have a fine specimen which 

 was killed at Rockaway in the act of carrying off one of our 

 wooden snipe decoys, which it had seized. "•^•' 



Dr. Frank M. Chapman writes me that his "friend Dr. L. 

 C. Sanford says he has seen a great horned owl attempt to seize 

 a decoy,'' while Cleaves ('14) cites a case of the osprey (Pandion 

 haliaetus carolinensis) seizing a wooden fish decoy. 



I have heard indirectly of other instances so that the occur- 

 rence can not be very unusual. 



■" This record was kindly given me by Mr. Chas. W. Richmond of the U. S. 

 National Museum. 



