GENERAL HABITS 205 



certain families where some of the species dwell 

 in more wooded districts and others in deserts, 

 it is only the latter that are modified in this 

 special way. We can better illustrate our mean- 

 ing by giving an instance. The Buntings, as 

 a group, are bright-coloured birds, yet the 

 Common Bunting is soberly arrayed in brown, 

 which harmonises closely with the brown earth 

 and the grey fallows upon which it loves to 

 rest ; whilst more significant still, we have the 

 sand - coloured Saharan Bunting, which lives 

 upon the North African deserts. Or yet again, 

 the Sparrows are a bright-coloured conspicuous 

 group, but when we reach the Sahara we meet 

 with a beautiful cream-coloured species the 

 Passer simplex of ornithologists which has dis- 

 carded the typical Sparrow garb and clothed 

 itself in the universal khaki instead. 



Leaving the coasts and the deserts behind us 

 and entering the marshes and swamps, we find 

 other types of protective colouration. Here we 

 have such birds as Snipes with their peculiar 

 striated or lined colours blending beautifully with 

 the ribbon-like leaves of grass or sedge ; or yet 

 again, the Bitterns, in their garb of brown and 

 yellow absolutely losing their identity amongst 

 the tall brown stems and yellow leaves of the 



