Rock Thrushes 59 



What can be more glowing than the plumage of a 

 male gold pheasant, yet what more closely resembles 

 the fallen leaves or the ground than that of his mate ; 

 the lovely barred brown of whose feathers entirely 

 helps to conceal her, as she sits closely on her nest in 

 some fern-covered hollow, on which the sun glints 

 with beams of light, broken on the earth beneath by 

 shadows of overhanging fronds and leaves and 

 branches, so that the pheasant's dark and lighter 

 russet bars exactly imitate her surroundings. Had 

 she a flowing crest of golden floss silk, and a vivid 

 breast of scarlet like her husband, how quickly she 

 would be detected ; she, and her brood when it is 

 hatched out ; but those tiny bodies of golden brown, 

 relieved and varied by longitudinal stripes of buff, 

 assimilate themselves in a perfect way with the under- 

 growth amongst which they move. 



It is just the same with all the Phasianidas, peafowl 

 included, except, perhaps, in the case of the Javanese 

 peahen, who is bold enough to wear a dress of rich 

 green like the male ; yet even she must dispense with 

 his court train. No doubt in her native wilds she lays 

 her eggs under recesses of green foliage, as rich in 

 colour as her own feathers, thus escaping detection. 



The duck family also is an example of Nature's 

 wisdom. Many male birds, such as ■ mandarins, 

 summer duck, and different kinds of teal, are quite 

 bejewelled with brilliant colouring ; yet almost invari- 

 ably their wives are clothed in browns and greys of 

 sober and unassuming tints. A mallard, our jolly 

 sporting old English " wild duck," is as bright as you 



