muffled with feathers. The bare feet of hawks are usually very light in color 

 — yellow or livid green or orange, — oftenest yellow. These pale, bright colors 

 have a deceptive effect, inasmuch as they are less characteristic of hard ani- 

 mal substances than of leaves and flowers and grasses. Furthermore, they 

 tend to prevent the feet from looming darkly conspicuous, as they otherwise 

 would in the shadow of the body. In the case of the Osprey or Fish Hawk 

 (Pandion), whose spur-scaled foot has such a marvelous tenacity of grip, 

 Nature seems to have used her utmost skill in the manufacture of a perfect 

 fishing weapon. Not only are the tarsus and toes pale watery blue and green 

 in color, but there is even a perfect obliterative shading from the top to the 

 bottom of the foot. The pantaloons are obsolete, and all the leg feathers are 

 immaculate white — details in most evident harmony with the habits of the 

 bird. Spreading leg feathers would obstruct action in the water, and mark- 

 ings would be equally out of place, since they belong properly to the inhabi- 

 tants of the streaked and mottled realms of field and forest. Pure white, on 

 the other hand, is less conspicuous than any other tone or color when seen 

 from below against the sky, or against the body of the bird above, whose 

 interposed opacity additionally steeps the leg in shadow. 



Of one class with these masking-devices of hawks' legs and feet are the 

 bright and motley bill-colors of predaceous wading birds and swimming birds. 

 Whatever may be their other functions, these gaudy colors well serve to dis- 

 tort, conceal and mask the powerful beaks, to the vision of the fishes, frogs, 

 insects, etc., in the capture of whom they are employed. Some of these 

 beaks, such as those of many herons, of anhingas, etc., are marked with bril- 

 liant reed- and water-colors, in various forms and combinations. Others, such 

 as those of rails, gallinules, jacanas, etc., are like bright leaves, stems, or 

 flowers — green, yellow, orange, or scarlet, as the case may be, in varying pat- 

 terns, sometimes combined with water-like blues or purples. (Certain South 

 American frogs are clad in these same colors. See Belt's "The Naturalist in 

 Nicaragua," p. 321.) Some of the jacanas have flat, erectile lobes or wattles, 

 of a rich red color, set about the base of the yellow bill, like red petals around 



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