136 - FRIENDS WORTH KNOWING. 
inconspicuons red, and a little black and white—just the 
colors one’s eye takes in at a glance as he looks at a hem- 
lock. The practical result for our eyes (or a falcon’s) is, 
that the pine-grossbeaks and finches, the crossbills and 
purple finches, blend with the foliage and cones and dead 
branches until they are lost to any but the most attentive 
gaze. The snow-bunting rejoices in a cloak of white, and 
thus mingles inextricably to the eye with the feathery 
flakes he whirls among, while his companion, the longspur, 
is almost equally ghostly. All the winter sparrows are of 
the brown color of the sere grass, withered leaves, and 
broken branches among which they dwell, except the slaty 
snow-bird, and he is of a neutral tint, easily lost to view in 
a shadow. 
This protection of adaptive colors is not enjoyed to any 
great extent by the robin, bluebird, meadow-lark, cardinal- 
grossbeak, and kingfisher—but none of these are “ winter” 
birds here, properly speaking, but only loiterers behind the 
summer host, and ought really to be excluded from the 
comparison; nor by the crow, crow-blackbirds, bluejay, 
Canada jay, and butcher-bird—but these are all large and 
strong, able for the most part to defend themselves; while, 
on the contrary, the colors of the large but timid and de- 
fenceless woodcock, quail, and grouse are highly protective. 
