264 TOUR IN SUTHERLANDSHIRE. 



nearly resembles the dead leaves of the wood and coppice, 

 which are his favourite haunts. 



The owl sits securely close to the trunk of a forest-tree, 

 her mottled-brown plumage being in colour exactly like the 

 bark of the trunk close to which she is perched. The 

 peregrine-falcon, with her blue-grey feathers, can scarcely be 

 distinguished from the lichen -covered crag, where she sits for 

 hours together as motionless as the rock itself. The eagle 

 sits upright on some cliff of the same colour as himself, 

 huddled up into a shape which only the experienced eye 

 detects to be that of a bird. The attitudes and figures of the 

 whole tribe of hawks are very striking and characteristic, 

 and as unlike as possible to the stuffed caricatures which one 

 usually meets with, and in which the natural character of 

 the bird is entirely lost. From want of time, and still more 

 from not having frequent opportunities of studying living 

 subjects, bird-stuffers in general make less advancement to- 

 wards excellence in their avocation than almost any other 

 class of artists, nor has the present leaning towards ornitho- 

 logical pursuits produced much improvement amongst them. 



In addition to the protection which similarity of colour 

 affords to animals, they have a natural instinct which leads 

 them to choose such places of concealment as, from the nature 

 of the surrounding objects, are the best fitted to conceal them. 

 The hare, for instance, constantly makes her form amongst 

 grey stones much of her own size and colour ; and birds 

 which are much persecuted do the same. The larger size of 

 red-deer obliges them to depend rather on the inaccessibility 

 of their resting-places than on any attempt at concealment ; 

 and the roebuck's safety is in the denseness and roughness of 

 the wood in which it lies. 



There is some powerful instinct, also, which assist animal 

 in finding their food ; and many go direct from great distances 

 to places where they are sure of finding it. Pigeons find out 

 newly-sown peas and other favourite grains almost im- 

 mediately after they have been put into the ground; and 

 will frequently fly several miles to a field the very first 

 morning after it is sown. Wild ducks, also, whose researches 

 can only be made by night, are equally quick in finding places 

 where there is plenty of any favourite food. The small gulls, 

 particularly the black-headed gull, discover the ploughman 

 before he has finished his first furrow, and collect in great 

 flocks to pick up every grub or worm which he turns up. 



