Birds. 3971 



prevailing colour to the general hue of his own locality. 1 cannot 

 better exemplify this than by quoting the words of Blyth, in his Notes 

 on White's Selborne. " The wood-snipe," he says, " is of the exact 

 tint of the dead leaves over which it runs, the snipe that of the marsh, 

 and the rail that of coarse and decaying vegetation in the ditch. 1 ' 

 " The ptarmigan," observes Mr. Mudie (and he might have added the 

 mountain hare), " is lichened rock in summer, hoar frost in autumn, 

 and snow in winter ; red grous are brown heather, black game are 

 peat-bank and shingle, and partridges are clods and withered stalks 

 the whole year round : " a provision of course intended to furnish 

 them with some means of eluding the piercing ken of their winged 

 enemies. I might adduce farther instances of this, but it will be 

 needless. Of course, the above statement does not apply to all birds, 

 many of which delight the eye with their brilliant hues in direct con- 

 trast to the haunts in which they dwell ; some of these do not need such 

 a means of concealment, and others are compensated for their want of 

 it by other methods of escape from their foes ; but to every one its own 

 peculiar garb is assigned. Nature, usually so uniform and undeviating 

 in all her ways, has given to every species of bird its own particular 

 colours, and this law is for the most part very strictly kept, insomuch 

 that from a thousand specimens of any particular species, the proba- 

 bility is that in all the plumage would be exactly alike, even to the 

 faintest and most minute markings. It will, however, be necessary to 

 qualify this assertion by the addition of certain provisoes. 1. That 

 the birds to be compared be of the same sex ; because, in so many 

 cases, the plumage of the males and the females of the same species 

 is totally different : as in the kestrel, the chaffinch, the pheasant, &c. 

 2. That they be of the same aye ; because, as we have seen above, 

 there are many birds which do not attain at first to their mature dress, 

 but are often clad in less defined colours, and young males are fre- 

 quently habited as females : as the sparrow-hawk, the bullfinch, and 

 most of the duck tribe. 3. That they be compared at the same sea- 

 son ; because there are many birds to whom Nature, in her wisdom 

 and goodness, has assigned a summer and a winter dress, clothing 

 them with dark or bright hues in the summer, and as winter draws 

 near, assimilating their plumage to the snowy landscape, by a greater 

 or less infusion of white in exchange for their dark clothing : of this 

 the whole family of divers, the snow-bunting, and the ptarmigan are 

 examples. So that in making a comparison of birds of the same 

 species, we must see that it be at the same season, and that the birds 

 to be compared are of the same sex and the same age ; and then we 



