MIMICS AMONG BIRDS 209 



The scream of the hen-hawk is so closely imitated 

 by the less-feared blue- jay that he can completely 

 terrify a group of small birds by his voice. Crows 

 imitate other bird-calls very well. Sometimes they 

 seem to have a secret method of calling the attention 

 of their own species to the nest of a harmless bird 

 which they wish to destroy ; they combine in a vocal 

 disguise so complete in its simulation that even the 

 setting bird pays no attention to the ruse. As a 

 result, she pays with her own life. 



Passing to the desert regions of brown sage- 

 brush and burning sand, we meet with the same 

 phenomena in both voice and colour. The plumage 

 of every bird — whether wild turkey, lark, quail, 

 sand grouse, chat, sparrow, or owl — assumes a des- 

 ert-colour. This is of uniform sand shade. 



During the past summer I found a redbird's 

 nest built among reddish-brown roots in a red-clay 

 gulley. The upper plumage of the female bird, 

 when sitting on her eggs, harmonised so perfectly 

 with her surroundings that had she not flown off 

 the nest at my near approach, I would possibly not 

 have seen her. I also came upon a wren sitting on 

 a nest which was wonderfully arranged in an old, 

 discarded sausage-grinder, so that it closely re- 

 sembled the colour and form of the grinder itself. 

 One happy day she and her dainty brood of five 



