NATURE'S FONDNESS FOR POLKA DOTS 



the "final touch," the color accent, which the 

 French achieve by a black piping or knot of 

 narrow black velvet ribbon, the great 

 modiste, nature, attains by the use of polka 

 dots on the breast, wings or tails of her most 

 modish birds. Witness the white polka dots 

 on the loon, the guinea, fowl, the beautiful 

 dappled breast of the blue-winged teal, and 

 the spotted sand-piper. The sparrow hawk, 

 the belted kingfisher, the vesper and song 

 sparrow, the meadow lark, brown thrasher, 

 wood and hermit thrushes, and the gorgeous 

 flicker furnish other illustrations of nature's 

 canny artistry with polka dots. 



Beside the diversity produced by chang- 

 ing the size of the spot, or making it slightly 

 oval in shape, it is infinitely varied, as man 

 has varied his use of it in fabrics, by the use 

 of different colors in the spot itself and its 

 background, till it reaches its de luxe form 

 on the superb wings of moths and butterflies 

 and on the tails of peacocks. Nor do the 

 glorified spots on the peacock's tail lose any- 

 thing of their beauty because we are told 



that their iridescence helps obscure their 

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