Identifier: birdsofvillagefi00bail (find matches)
Title: Birds of village and field: a bird book for beginners
Year: 1898 (1890s)
Authors: Bailey, Florence Merriam, b. 1863
Subjects: Birds
Publisher: Boston, New York, Houghton, Mifflin and company
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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Text Appearing Before Image:
aw: Animals are painted by nature^ darkest onthose p)arts which tend to he most lighted hy thesky^s light, and vice versa, ^ that is, darker aboveand lighter below. He demonstrates this mostconclusively by means of pictures of birds as theyare in nature, in contrast to those in which he haspainted the under parts uniform with the dark up-per parts, or, as he says, extended the protectivecoloration all over them. As we look at the pic-tures, the natural birds are almost invisible, seemscarcely to exist; while the painted ones standout boldly, unmasked, before us (Plate III.). The Grouse is one of the best examples of thiswonderful law of adaptation, of the gradation oftints; and it is also a wonderful example of j^urecolor correspondence to surroundings, and theuse of color pattern to disguise form. When thebrooding bird sits on her buffy eggs at the footof a tree, the white that is mixed with the darkbrown of her back matches the effect of sunlight1 The Auk, vol. xiii. No. ii. p. 125.
Text Appearing After Image:
m - w2 © M 2 ^ .- o 2 sS ^ ^ .« o BUFFED GROUSE 35 on the brown leaves so well that it Is hard to tellwhere the leaves end and the bird begins. Thenthe dark band crossing the end of her tail breaksthe tail form. The Grouse is well adapted to the needs of itslife in matters of form as well as coloration. Asit sj^ends its time on the ground, it has a strongfoot, like that of the hen and pheasant, its con-geners, in contrast to the weak perching foot ofthe air-dwelling Swift. (See Fig. 7, p. 25.) Inwinter this is still more remarkably modified tosuit its habits. The bird does not go south inwinter, but has to wade through the snow for itsfood; and to meet this necessity its toes, which insummer are bare and slender, in winter are fringedso that they serve admirably for snowshoes. The short, rounded, hen-like wings of theGrouse also suit its short, rapid flights; for thebird does not migrate, and when startled in thewoods does little more than shoot out like a bomband then gradually cur

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