EEKD LIFE 845 



within a couple of yards without attracting notice, bat 

 with others which, looked at as dried skins in the 

 hand, seem Tery conspicuously marked. Mr. Pycroffc 

 quotes as an instance of this the Hoopoe a bird to 

 which, by the bye, more than one curious legend is 

 attached. ' It is of a rich buff or sand colour, with a 

 large and beautiful crest on the head, and the wings 

 conspicuously barred with black and white. Yet on 

 the approach of a Hawk or other enemy it throws itself 

 flat on the ground, drops its chest, and spreads out its 

 wings, and heigho ! as if in obedience to the magician's 

 wand, our bird has vanished: what appears to be a 

 bundle of rags remains in its place.* 



The little Bearded Tit is an even more beautiful 

 instance of the kind. It is a conspicuous object when 

 leaves are green, but almost invisible when invisibility 

 is most important. The eggs to quote from an earlier 

 chapter are laid in April, when the tall reeds among 

 which the nest is built, an inch or two from the 

 ground, are ripe for cutting. The prevailing tints of 

 the entire district land, water, and sky are then the 

 cinnamons, straw-colours, and pale blue-greys miracu- 

 lously reproduced in the feathers of the bird. 



The < Eclipse' of the Mallard Drake during the moult, 

 which is described and illustrated in all its stages in 

 Mr. John Millais 1 lately-published History of the British 

 Surface-feeding Ducks, is a yet more marvellous tale. 

 For the fortnight during which the Drake is without 

 flight-feathers, and as helpless as an Apteryx, bright 

 colours of every kind are dropped, and the male wears 



