52 BY-WAYS AND BIRD-NO TES. 



midst of that apparently flat wash of drab neu 

 tral. 



That hawks and owls have powerful and 

 far-seeing eyes cannot be doubted ; but they 

 either lack a fine power of discrimination in 

 vision, or this adaptation of the colors and 

 markings of birds to their surroundings is 

 very effectual, else these birds of prey exhibit 

 a wonderful forbearance toward their natural 

 victims during the season of incubation. I 

 am inclined to the opinion that hawks are 

 what might be called &quot;far-sighted,&quot; and that 

 their vision at very short distances is not very 

 clear. I once saw a goshawk pursuing a 

 downy woodpecker, when the latter darted 

 through a tuft of foliage and flattened itself 

 close upon the body of a thick oak bough, 

 where it remained as motionless as the bark 

 itself. The hawk alighted on the same bough 

 within two feet of its intended victim, and re 

 mained sitting there for some minutes, evi 

 dently looking in vain for it, with nothing but 

 thin air between monster and morsel. The 

 woodpecker was stretched longitudinally on 

 the bough, its tail and beak close to the bark, 

 its black and white speckled feathers looking 

 like a continuation of the wrinkles and lichen. 

 No doubt those were moments of awful sus 

 pense for the little- fellow; but its ruse suc 

 ceeded, and the hawk flew away to try some 

 other tidbit. If the woodpecker had stopped 

 amongst the green leaves, the hawk would 

 have discovered it instantly. 



I have noticed that the cardinal-grosbeak and 

 the blue-jay are more often killed by hawks 

 than are the other common birds of our woods ; 

 and I attribute the fact to their brilliant plu- 



