GAY PLUMES AND DULL 



does not prove very much. The peril is to the eggs 

 or to the unfledged young; these cannot run or fly 

 away. Eliminate this danger — this and the danger 

 from storms and cold — and the numbers of our 

 birds would probably double in a single year. Hence 

 the care the birds take to conceal their nests, not 

 for the mother bird's sake, but for the sake of the 

 treasures which she cannot defend. In some cases 

 she appears to offer herself an easy victim in order 

 to lure the intruder away. She would have him see 

 only herself when she flutters, apparently disabled, 

 over the ground. The game of concealment has 

 failed; now she will try what feigning can do. 



All the species of our birds in which the male 

 is more brilliantly colored than the female, such 

 as the scarlet tanager, the indigo-bird, the rose- 

 breasted grosbeak, the goldfinch, the summer 

 tanager, the Virginia cardinal, the blue grosbeak, 

 build in trees or low bushes, and it seems to me 

 that the dull tints of the female would play but 

 little part in concealing the nest. The enemies 

 of these birds — as of most of our birds — are 

 crows, squirrels, black snakes, jays, weasels, owls, 

 and hawks, and have been for untold generations. 

 Now the obscure coloring of the female would play 

 no part in protecting her against any of these crea- 

 tures. What would attract their attention would 

 be the nest itself. The crows, the jays, the weasels, 

 the squirrels, explore the trees looking for eggs and 

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