A TRIBE OF WEED WAIilllORS 235 



light-brown shoes and stockings. A knowing glance 

 has he in the rnby-red eyes that sparkle in his coal- 

 black head, while inside that little head are very wise 

 tlioughts." 



"Plow are his eyes red, Uncle Roy?" asked Dodo. 

 " Are they all plain red or only red in a ring around 

 the seeing part where mine are blue?" 



" They are ' red in a ring,' as you say ; we call this 

 ring the iris, and the 'seeing part' the inipil.'' 



"Please, Avhat does iris mean? Iris is the name of 

 one of the lily flowers that grow in the garden." 



"Iris is a word that means rainbow, which as you 

 know is a belt of beautiful colors, made by the sun 

 shining through rain. Tiie iris of the eye is a film of 

 color covering the watery inside })art of the e3'eball, 

 and the pupil is a round hole in the iris that lets the 

 light into the back of the eye. This opening expands 

 and contracts according to whether the eye needs much 

 or little light. I tell you this now, but you will need 

 to remember it when we come to the Owls, who have 

 curious ways of keeping too much light from their eyes. 



" The iris in birds, as in House People, may be of 

 many different colors — red, as in the Vireo I told you 

 about, and as you now know it is with the Towhee. 

 Each has a brother with white eyes. You remem- 

 ber the White-eyed Vireo, and in Florida there is a 

 Towhee who has white eyes ; but this is so unusual that 

 it makes the bird look to you as if it were blind, until 

 you understand that it is the natural color. Most 

 birds' eyes are brown of some shade, or perfectly black ; 

 a few have blue or green e3'es. But where did I leave 

 Mr. Jore-e Blur-re?" 



