. The story of the birds; . rliaps, an exemplary parent and brother, andled liis little family around and guided it in safety tothe burrow. But now his altruism isonly a vestige. He has become trav-eled and selfish, and learned tomake a tramplike bed for eachnights rest in a new re-gion. Farther awayfrom home (out Westand South) the cottonysignal is growing dull,and Nature stamps onhis very fur the ten-dency of his strikingly ex-hibit these social or sig-nal colors on various partsof the body. They maybe conspicuous head mark-ings, as in some plovers;throat patches, as in our Bo
. The story of the birds; . rliaps, an exemplary parent and brother, andled liis little family around and guided it in safety tothe burrow. But now his altruism isonly a vestige. He has become trav-eled and selfish, and learned tomake a tramplike bed for eachnights rest in a new re-gion. Farther awayfrom home (out Westand South) the cottonysignal is growing dull,and Nature stamps onhis very fur the ten-dency of his strikingly ex-hibit these social or sig-nal colors on various partsof the body. They maybe conspicuous head mark-ings, as in some plovers;throat patches, as in our Bob-white and wild (Canada) goose;rump spots, as in the flicker orlapwing ; various tail spots, tips,or blotches, or the entire whiteness of one or moretail feathers ; wholly or partially white feathers amongthe wing quills, or white blotches or bars u2:)on thesmaller feathers of the wing—more conspicuous usu-ally when spread in flight. There are many otherforms—the entire wing or back or some other partbeing Lapwing. 56 THE STORY OF THE BIRDS. When it is to the interest of the l)ird to be incon-spicuous while j^erching, these marks maj be entirelyconcealed, as in the white rump patch of the flicker,which is usually hidden by the closed wings ; or inthe white outer tail feathers of the snowbirds andothers, which, except when spread in flight, are hid-den under the others. Other birds are white beneath and protectivelycolored above. The teetering of the little tip-up sandpipers is doubtless the vestige of a signalwrought in the display of white underwear with thepeek-a-boo up-and-down motion. From abovetheir colors harmonize with their haunt. These recognition colors may be also modifiedor used for ornament, since many of them are moreconspicuous in males than females, as in Bobwhite,the English sparrow, and others. In fact, Mr. Wallace,who first emphasized these markings as thus useful,thought that the purpose of all brilliancy and pe-culiar patterns in the male
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1897
