HOW BIRDS DRESS.
In temperate climates like this birds do not dress in such bright
colors as they do in hot countries. Their coats and gowns are
plainer. There are few extremes in color here, as there are few
extremes in heat or cold.
We can tell almost any race or class of people by their style of
dress or lack of dress. We can name the trees and shrubs and vines by
their foliage, which is really their dress; so we know the different
kinds of birds by their plumage or dress.
Many birds resemble in color the haunts or places which they like the
best. Desert birds are pale or gray, like the sand. Many of those
in the tropics are dressed in gay colors, like the bright blossoms
about them, while many birds in the cold north are white like the
snow. By this we see that in all nature, and especially among the
bird people, dress is of great importance.
Some of the larger and coarser birds have been accused of being very
untidy about their dress. They do not seem to care how they look, and
do not show their clothes off proudly as others do. But people who
think this have not observed them very closely. Birds like the hawks
and vultures are really very neat and tidy.
Turkey buzzards[2] look very ugly and rough at first glance, but
their plumage is suited to their needs, and they take great pains to
be clean.
[2] Turkey vulture, _Cathartes aura_.
You will notice that the buzzard has no feathers on his head and
neck, and it is this lack of hat or bonnet that makes this bird
look so odd and unlovely. But we must not be in a hurry to blame
him for this, nor call him hard names because he does not happen to
wear a collar or head-dress. There are some things which we do not
understand unless we first ask questions or get better acquainted
with people.
You see the buzzard, like the scavengers who clean up our dirty
streets, is always at work on dead things and scraps of garbage
which we do not want. We respect him for doing a very necessary sort
of work. He must dress to suit his occupation, like other sensible
people, though we cannot help wishing the buzzard had a suit of
Sunday clothes.
[Illustration: Turkey Buzzard.]
He wears nothing on his head because he is obliged to reach far
in beneath bones and thick skin in search of food. If he wore
a head-dress, like his neighbors, it would get very foul and
ill-smelling, and we should think him far more untidy than he is. As
it is, he can slip his naked head into marrow bones and out again
without much trouble, and not be afraid of spoiling his hat, as other
birds would.
We would not care to be daily companions of the buzzard and the
carrion crow, although they are useful and interesting birds. We
would prefer to be in the company of better dressed and better bred
people.
Most of the birds we know think a great deal about their dress. They
work much of their time to keep it tidy and in good order. They mend
their clothes, too, although they do not use a needle and thread. A
little girl we know laughed heartily one day when we told her that
the robin mends her dress when it is torn.
The little girl had only to watch and see that Mrs. and Miss Robin,
and other birds as well, smooth out and fix up the torn and rumpled
feathers till they look as good as new.
Different kinds of birds have different fashions, but these fashions
never change. A bird to-day dresses exactly as its grandmother
did, and the birds never seem to make fan of one another for being
old-fashioned.
Once in a long while we find a solitary bird different in color from
others of its kind. We have seen a white blue jay, and there is in
our yard a brown towhee which has two white feathers in its wing.
Such birds are very rare, as are people who have a spot of white
hair on their heads when all the rest is dark; or albinos, that is,
persons with pink eyes and very white skin, although they belong to a
dark race.
Two suits of clothes a year are quite enough for most birds, while
one suit is all that others can afford. But birds are very careful of
their clothes, although they never try to dress more gaily than their
neighbors and friends. They only try to be clean, and so they set us
a very good example.
Sit down on the grass under a tree, or on a seat in the park, and see
the birds dress themselves. Every separate feather is cleaned and
pulled and looked over, just as a woman cleans and stretches delicate
lace and embroidery. See how the loose feathers are pulled out and
dropped, like so many useless ravellings or worn threads. The bird
watches the falling plume until it reaches the ground, canting her
head to one side to see what becomes of her tatters, and then she
goes on with her dressing.
Madam Bird manages very well to twist about and reach all of her
clothes except her head-dress. Have you wondered how a bird can turn
its head all around in a way that would cramp your own neck if you
should try it? The neck of a bird is more flexible than yours; that
is, it is furnished with more joints, so that the bird can turn its
head readily and dress itself with ease.
A bird never changes the whole of its dress at once. Little by little
the feathers drop out or are pulled away, so that they are not
missed. If they should all come out in one day or one week, the bird
would be helpless and unable to fly.
If you should attempt to smooth a bird's feathers without knowing
how, you would very likely make her look very ragged. Naturalists,
who know how because they have practised so much, can smooth and pull
the feathers as well as the bird herself. They can pick up a hurt
bird and by a few touches make her look respectable.
[Illustration]