180 EXTRACTS FROM NOTE-BOOKS. CH. XXXI. 



which she is perched. The peregrine-falcon, with 

 her blue-gray 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 

 towards excellence in their avocation than almost 

 any other class of artists, nor has the present 

 leaning towards ornithological pursuits produced 

 much improvement amongst them. 



In addition to the protection which similarity of 

 colour affords to animals, they have a natural in- 

 stinct 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 gray stones much of her own size and 

 colour ; and birds which are much persecuted do 



