74 
BY THE WAYSIDE 
ative position, the two ears are placed, 
and the absence of a directive outer ear 
renders the bird susceptible to sounds 
coming from every direction. 
Owls, for very obvious reasons, are in¬ 
teresting exceptions to the above state¬ 
ments. Living most of their active life 
at night, playing always the role of pur- 
PORTRaIT of a well-bred rooster 
Showing An Extreivu Development of Comb and Wattles 
suers, these birds have few enemies to 
fear. Their subsistence depends upon 
the keenness of their senses when 
focussed in one direction—downward. 
When its strong, soft-leathered pinions 
carry a mousing owl over field and stub¬ 
ble, the head, like the nose of a hound, 
is held low, and, that not a rustle or a 
motion of the little field-mice may be 
1 >*>t, the ear-openings are turned down¬ 
ward and the eyes look full upon the 
ground. Look a barn owd in the face 
and you will see the entire circumference 
of both eyes, but a dove—one of the pur¬ 
sued in life’s race—shows in the front 
view onl}’ 1 the profile of the eyeballs. 
The same storv is told in the eves of the 
V * 
fox and the rabbit—examples of nature’s 
parallels, which are never repetitions. 
The eyes of the woodcock show’ an in¬ 
teresting adaptation to its habits. The 
bird feeds at night in marshes, probing 
the mud for worms, and being in frequent 
danger of attack from owls or other foes, 
it has need of constant vigilance. So we 
find that its eyes, which are large and 
lustrous, are placed far back on its head, 
and also up near the top of the skull. 
Useless in guiding the bird in its search 
for food, they have become altered in 
size and position, and so best fulfill their 
function of aiding their owner to all but 
look through the back of its head. 
What a list of crests we mav com¬ 
pile in a walk through a zoological 
park! Concealed crests bring to mind 
the kingbird and the ruby-crowned king¬ 
let, both of which derive their names 
from their crowns of ruby. It is said 
that the former bird is aided in its search 
for food by the bright spot of color, 
which, flower-like when exposed, attracts 
insects. This, however, should be con¬ 
firmed before being accepted as a fact; 
although in a tropical flycatcher, which 
has a beautiful red and purple transverse 
crest, the evidence of this novel use seems 
fairly well corroborated. 
As the antithesis to this condition, we 
find many birds which have the head 
partly or entirely bare of feathers, such 
as the vultures and some of the waders. 
In the former group this lack of feathers 
is doubtless of value in enabling the 
