i 



218 NATURE AND WOODCRAFT. 



better or more closely to its environment. The 

 browns and duns and yellows of its back have 

 all their counterparts in the leaves among which 

 it lies. Its protection lacks in one thing, 

 however, and that is its large dark eye. This 

 is full, bright, and obtrusive. It is not often 

 that a special provision of this kind is injurious 

 to its owner ; but the lustre which beams from 

 the woodcock's eye is apt to betray its presence, 

 perhaps slightly to negative the advantage of 

 its protective colouring. 



An interesting little bird, which every year 

 comes to this country from the north, is the 

 Snow-bunting. It travels from within the Arctic 

 Circle, and so variable is its plumage that 

 naturalists almost despair of ever getting a 

 characteristic description. Indeed, so great a 

 puzzle did this little stranger offer, that for 

 long it stood to the older naturalists as three 

 distinct species. Of course, we know now that 

 the mountain, tawny, and snow bunting are 

 one, and this because the birds have been 

 obtained in almost every possible stage of 

 plumage. They breed upon the summits of 

 the highest hills with the Ptarmigan, and, like 

 that bird, regulate their plumage to the pre- 



