180 EXTRACTS FROM NOTE-BOOKS. CH. XXXI. 



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 he that of a hird. The 

 attitudes and figures of the whole trihe of hawks are 

 very striking and characteristic, and as unlike as 

 possihle to the stuffed caricatures which one usually 

 meets with, and in which the natural character of 

 the hird 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 pur- 

 suits 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, fi-om 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 ; 



