PLUMAGE OF BIRDS. 79 



beauty of color than the unmusical species. As an ex- 

 planation of this fact we must consider that the singing- 

 birds are more humble in their habitats than others. 

 The brightly colored birds chiefly frequent the forests and 

 lofty trees. Such are the woodpecker, the troupial, and 

 many species of tropical birds. The northern temper- 

 ate latitudes are the region of the grasses, which afford 

 sustenance to a large proportion of the singing-birds — the 

 finches and buntings — of that part of the world. Some 

 of the finches are high-colored, but these usually build in 

 trees, like the purple finch and the goldfinch. But the 

 sparrows and the larks, that build in a bush or on the 

 ground, are plainly .dressed. The thrushes, which are 

 equally plain in their dress, build in low bushes, and take 

 their food chiefly from the ground. Indeed, it might 

 be practicable to distinguish among a variety of strange 

 birds the species that live and nestle in trees by their 

 brighter plumage. 



In our own latitude the species that frequent the 

 shrubbery are of a brown or olive-brown of different 

 shades. They are dressed in colors that blend with the 

 general tints of the ground and herbage while they are 

 seeking their food or sitting upon their nests. Birds, 

 however, do not differ much in the colors of the hidden 

 parts of their plumage. Beneath they are almost uni- 

 versally of grayish or whitish tints, so that, while sitting 

 on a branch, the reptiles lurking for them may not, when 

 looking upward, distinguish them from the hues of the 

 clouds and the sky and the grayish undersurface of the 

 leaves of trees. Water-birds are generally gray all over, 

 except a tinge of blue in their plumage above. Ducks, 

 however, are many of them variegated with green and 

 other colors that harmonize with the weeds and plants 

 of the shore upon which they feed. 



Nature works on the same plan in guarding insects 



