94 AFRICAN GAME ANIMALS 



almost never from below. This is true of thrushes, war- 

 blers, sparrows, snipe, and ducks. Now, birds in tree tops, 

 notably in a giant tropical forest, but also even in our own 

 woods, are so difficult for us to see as we stand (usually 

 with the light in our eyes) on the ground, even when bril- 

 liantly colored, that hasty observers are apt to think that 

 these brilliant colors have some concealing value. There is 

 no warrant whatever for such belief. The foes of these 

 birds are up among them or above them; and from above 

 or one side these birds at once become visible; although in 

 the flood of light and color, and in the immense confusion 

 of vistas and obstacles, among the tree tops, they are all, 

 whether plainly or brightly colored, infinitely more difficult 

 to make out than when in the dark uniform monotony of 

 the landscape underneath the trees. Let any man look 

 out from the second story of a Virginia house in the woods 

 at the summer redbirds in the trees on a level with the 

 window, or in similar fashion at the Baltimore orioles in 

 the elm from the third story of a Long Island house — we 

 are speaking from actual experience — and contrast the 

 ease of seeing these brilliant birds from above or from a 

 level with the difficulty of making them out when staring 

 up at them in the tree tops with the light in one's eyes. 

 But even from above or from a level they are far more diffi- 

 cult to make out in the tree tops than they are on the rare 

 occasions when they come to the ground ; a Baltimore oriole 

 on the lawn, and still more a scarlet tanager on a low bush 

 in the woods, glows like a live coal. As a rule, birds which 

 live on or near the ground in forests are sombrely colored; 

 they are hard to see because they are not brightly colored; 

 countershading ordinarily plays no part in their conceal- 



