CHAPTER VI 



BACKGROUND-PICTUEING ON COUNTER-SHADED BIRDS, CONTINUED. THIRD 

 TYPE, — ^PICTURING OF THE MORE DISTANT BACKGROUND ON PARTIALLY 

 ARBOREAL BIRDS 



IT is obvious that high-standing and tree-perching birds tend to have more 

 distant 'backgrounds' than do those that squat on the ground, and that 

 in many cases the only pattern which could adequately cooperate with their 

 obliterative shading would be one which should 'coalesce' with a highly diver- 

 sified forest-interior landscape. A landscape, that is, made up of tree trunks 

 and branches, near and distant, the interminably various criss-cross pattern 

 of the smaller twigs, stretches of sunlight-dappled ground, glimpses of sky, 

 etc., — or, in other words, the second type of intricate pattern named in the 

 preceding chapter. 



Such a pattern exists on many birds, and when, as in nearly all the cases, 

 it is to some degree commingled with a representation of the nearer details of 

 the ground-plane, to suit its wearer's partially terrestrial habits, it marks the 

 very consummation of the obliterative principle. Certain forest grouse, 

 such as the Bonasa umbellus or Ruffed Grouse of North America, and the 

 Hazel Grouse {Bonasa hetulina), of Europe, are perfect examples of this type. 

 The colored plate represents a cock Ruffed Grouse, against a variegated forest 

 interior. This picture, as stated in the Preface, was painted from woodland 

 photographs, etc., and from a stuffed grouse in a house-lighting artificially 

 arranged to suit the bird's counter shading. Notice his complete lack of 

 light-and-shade indicative of solidity — by which lack his beautiful ground- 

 and-forest markings are enabled to 'coalesce' effectively with those of his back- 

 ground. Such — or even more magically obscure — is the aspect of a live 

 Ruffed Grouse in a naked tree, which the eye of the hunter scans in vain at- 



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