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 the like-colored dark reflections in the water, and his 

 white patterns exactly reproduce the bright sky-reflections, so 

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



