Alaska sentinel., 1905-03-30
BIRDS THAT DISAPPEAR.
Magic Trick of the Little California
 Partridces.

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 PartridEes.
 Young birds have to be taught great many things. but there are some feats which they know without instruc- ton. In a large open-air cage in the New York Geological park is a coyey of six California cartridges, about one third grown, and their little bantam stepmother. She dozes at one end of the range or walks slowly about, pecking among the blades of grass. The small sextet keep close together. and If We watch them for several minutes we will see some of the things which must have come to them as their feathers and little bills came-from the egg.
 Unlike the hen. they are suspicious of your every movement, but in a short time they forget that you are not lifeless tree trunk or other harmless object near their cage. They select sunny spot, always on the dead leaves. never on the green grass, and here. after much cuddling and pushing, but never a peep, they squat, usually in an irregular circle with heads outward. Unless there are dead leaves or some similarly colored surface in their cage they never settle down cJuteatedly for a sun bath.
 We watch them nestle close to the ground and close their eyes; then some movement on the part of the hen may attract our attention for moment. and on looking back again We are amazed 10 find the little birds have disappear ed. It Is a fact that If we lose sight of them even for a short time the eye at first refuses to distinguish them from the dried leaves. Their little backs are dull. dark brown in color. broken by irregular fine white lines. very much like the mold lines on fallen leaves, while the lighter sides of the head, instead Of being at all conspicu- ous, are exactly like the lighter shades of some old leaves, the imitation being more perfect from the fact of the color ing being thus broken up. Even the little brush of upraised feathers in their heads-hints of the beautiful re. curved helmets of the old bi-ds-ap- pear like small, frayed-out pieces Of grass or leaf.
 If we look toward them with half. closed eyes not a trace of the birds is visible. All appear sound asleep, and the little heads sag drowsily to one side, but at the slightest noise each black bead of an eye is wide open and six scurrying pairs of legs or rounded, whirring wings. carry their owners to the farther sile of the cage. as if an unfelt wind had suddenly caught up some of the dead leaves before us and tossed them along the ground. It is all beautiful bit of magic. which never becomes less wonderful, no matter how many times we witness it.
 When we see how wonderfully these little partridses protected from dan ger by their color We cease to wonder how the mother partridge keeps hidden during her three weeks vigil on her nest. The male bird is indescribably beautiful-dotted and slashed. stained and shaded with different tones of col or. some of his feathers looking almost like the scales of fishes. His head Is decorated by two interlacing white lines and the tall helmet of beautiful recuryed feathers. which, added to his black throat. make him a very con spicuous bird. We find that his little wife while 10 certain degree sharing many of his beauties, has them in such subdued tones that they do not make her at all noticeable among surround ings of dried grass and weeds
 The young birls are still further pro vided with means of escape from their many enemies, for almost from the moment they are matched their little wing feathers shoot out, and when only a day old they can futter a full yard into the air. Tn fact" says c. VII. liam Beebe in the New York Tribune. T have known one of these hardy chicks to fall out of a nesting box eighteen inches from the floor, and somehow get back alone on the day of matching. Imagine a common chicken attempting this..'