DIFFERENT COLORED SUITS 121 
the sand, he has only to flatten himself and keep 
still, and he is hidden. Such a bird on the nest 
will often let one come close, and even stroke 
her, while relying on her color to be unseen. A 
sitting ruffed grouse will do so. But if snow 
falls, the same bird is very wild, for she knows 
she can be seen in the snow. 
I have seen a striped bird, — black and white 
warbler, — when frightened, flatten himself on a 
branch, where he looked so much like the bark 
that he could not be seen. 
Ground birds are mostly in mottled colors of 
the ground. The whip-poor-will, whose habit it 
is to rest ona log all day, wears colors that hide 
him as well as if he were under the log. 
The striking colors on a bird are often hidden 
when he is at rest, but show plainly when he 
flies. When a flicker stands quietly on a fence 
he is all in rather dull colors, but when he flies 
he shows a large snow-white spot on his back, so 
that as far as one can see him he may be known. 
A meadowlark on the ground looks not unlike 
a flicker, but when he flies he shows that the 
outside feathers of his tail are white. This is as 
striking a mark as the white spot on the flicker. 
Many birds have such markings, and it 1s 
thought by men who study birds and look for 
a use in everything, that such, marks serve the 
