LEAF AND TENDRIL 



products. There is nothing else for them to use. 

 If a man builds a hut or a shanty in the fields or 

 woods with such material as he finds ready at hand, 

 his habitation will be protectively colored also. 

 The winter wren builds its mouse-like nest of green 

 moss, but in every case that has come under my 

 observation the nest has been absolutely hidden 

 by its position under a log or in a stump, or amid 

 the roots of trees, and the most conspicuous colors 

 would not have betrayed it to its enemies. In fact, 

 the birds that build hidden nests in holes or tree 

 cavities use of necessity the same neutral materials 

 as those that build openly. 



Birds that deliberately face the exterior of their 

 nests with lichens obtained from rocks and trees, 

 such as the hummingbird, the blue-gray gnat- 

 catcher, and the wood pewee, can hardly do so 

 with a view to protection, because the material of 

 their nests is already weather-worn and inconspicu- 

 ous. The lichens certainly give the nest an artistic 

 finish and make it a part of the branch upon which 

 it is placed, to an extent that suggests something 

 like taste in the builders. But I fail to see how a 

 marauding crow, or a jay, or a squirrel, or a weasel, 

 or any other enemy of the bird could be cheated by 

 this device. 



IV 



I find myself less inclined to look upon the neutral 

 grays and browns of the animal world as the result 



78 



