WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



tected from harm by the correspondence of their 

 coat and their surroundings. Their home is 

 among the evergreens, where an occasional dead 

 branch or withered stem reHeves the verdancy with 

 yellowish patches, and the thick-hanging cones 

 dot the tree with spots of reddish-brown; their 

 plumage is mottled with green, tints of yellow and 

 brown, an inconspicuous red, and a little black 

 and white — just the colors one's eye takes in at a 

 glance as he looks at a hemlock. 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 



74 



