El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1900-10-30
WAR COLORS OF BIRDS.
They Deceive Their Prey aud Pro-
t~cs Them From Their Enemies.

~ soon AZ the eggs are brokcn-war
with boys. with eats. with snakes and
even with other birdS-owlS and
hawks for instance. Their piumaSe
bears the colors Of war. aS our naval
| vessels do when they don coat of
gray paint.
When birds prey on insects. they aim
To steal upon them unnoticcd. and the
| coloring that aids them 10 do this Is
! rallied deceptive and aggressive colora-
| ton. | watched II great crested NY
| catcher last summer. and | never saw
! colorS blended more admirably for
making him invisible 10 the insects
| that lie makes war on. He was perch
| ed in Il tree. chiefly green. but with
many leaves already changing to red
| dish and yellowish tints, and in his
own feathers he matched every leaf
color-olivc green washed with Grays
and browns like the leaf shadows. the
sulphur yellow underneath. and the
glowing chestnut hue Of the tail. Even
his crest seemed to match the long fila
mcnts of the blossoms and the slender
| tufts of young leaves
All the hycatchers have the green's
and grays of leaves in light and shad-
ow. and several kinds show yellow
| touch here and there, as the orange
crown of the kingbird and the yellow
ish undertints of others. 1t is marvel
Gus how these birds seem to vanish
| from sight when exploring knotholes
and crevices in dry wood, so perfect Is
/ the assimilation of color.
Woodpeckers. being large birds and
feeding on the helpless larvae and eggs
OF insects, may fcarlessly show their
| brilliant scarlet or yellow crowns and
vests, but the smaller nuthatches and
creepor> need protective colorin" and
| maskin=S and reproduce not only the
colorS of banks and wood. but the
stripes and Zi-Za2 lines that mark the
tree trunks. They often search tree
beside us quite unseen unless we are in
the habit of looking out for birds.
So common is protective color for
eluding Il foe that we can usually tell
birds habits by its feathers. The
ground birds have the brown tints of
the earth and its barred and notified
look in sun and shade. as quailS.
grouse. meadow larkS and longSpurs;
the VireoS or -rcenlrt>. which live
among the leaves. are olive ana yellow;
the nightbirds are duSky; the cuckoos,
birds that love shadowy tree hooks, are
olive gray and soft white. blending
with the gray, and even the scarlet
tanagers. the fiamelike orioles, the rose
red cardinals. are not so conspicuous
when we remember that they feed on
bright colored fruits and tree blossoms.
The almost universal law of color for
birds is dark above where the light
falls and light beneath. on the parts in
shadow.
There are other effects of light to
shelter birds that are especially con-
spicuous. The yellow warbler looks
wholly yellow to careless observer.
but there is n green shade on his back
and fiecks of reddish brown leaf color
on his breast, and these effects hide
him among the leaves. The indigo bird
has a bright green light on his glowing
blue which protects him in the thickets
as lie fits from bush to bush. The
flicker is very conspicuously colored
and marked and loves high places, but
there is tint over head and breast, n
rose purple glow like the sunrise or
sunset light, which tends to blend bird
and high treetop in one suffusion OF
color and thus helps To conceal him.
There are colors of recognition. too
white thumb marks on the cuckoo's
tail ana the White feathers that the
meadow larks and towhecs show as
they rise. Such markings make a
birds signal code. and by them they
follow their leader and keep in ranks
on the march of the migrations.
There are also brilliant spots OF color,
gay crests and rufus. merely decorative
colors. some OF which belong to- the
male bird only, ut the time of court
ship and nesting. These are supposed
to he signs OF vitality and strength in
birds. so that il there he combat be-
tween two rival bird suitors the bright
est colored or more vigorous will win,
and thus even these colors may he said
to he reproduced by law of battle.
But protective color comes in again
with brown and olive mates the spar
rowlikc bird mothers, which need spe-
cial protection as they keep the eggs
warm in the nest. The sober wives of
the Hangers. of the rose breasted gros-
beaks. of the orchard orioles, OF the
bobolinks and the indigo birds are in
stances of this kind and also the nest
lingS. often neutral tinted or even
blackish and soOty, as the babies of the
glowing bluebirds. These are noncom-
colors of the warlike male birds.-Ella
T.. Mosby in Philadelphia Times.
How tn Make Compass.
i have made Il compass which almost