KXPI.A NATION OF PI.ATB IV 



MALE WOOD DUCKS. 



Upper one; Sketch by Abbott H. Thayer, 

 Lower one: Painting by Richard S. Meryman 



These paintings show one of the very common situations in 

 which the boldest contrasts of a male Wood Duck' s coloring come 

 into play in preventing his showing his silhouette.. 



His dark areas, with all their varied colors, here 'become a 

 part' of i the like-colored ^ark reflections in the water, and his 

 wMt^' patterns exactly reproduce the bright sky-reflcctiohs, so 

 that he is so to speak 'dissolved' into the scene. — ^A. H. T. 



