30 UNDER THE OPEN SKY 



he lives; and in our latitude a ground- 

 loving bird must be sombre in color. The 

 meadow-lark, with his streaks of brown 

 and buff running lengthwise of his body, is 

 practically lost in the maze of grass stems 

 and shadows amongst which he chiefly 

 lives. 



But he is not doomed to wear altogether 

 sombre clothing. While he and his mate 

 have backs colored with reference to their 

 enemies, their breasts are surely colored for 

 each other. The whole under surface is a 

 rich canary yellow, with a beautiful cres- 

 centic necklace of black. It is chiefly in 

 the heart-to-heart talks of lovers, or in the 

 congregation of their friends, that this beau- 

 tiful adornment is conspicuous. The cas- 

 ual observer might see meadow-larks over 

 and over again, and never suspect that they 

 turned towards the earth so lovely a vest. 



A BIRD TRICK 



These two color schemes are plain in 

 their purpose, but the third was long mis- 

 understood. "Showing the white feather" 



