But Nat could not think, and Rap answered: "Because in the autumn when they make the long journeys the leaves are falling from the trees, and if they were very bright the cannibal birds would see them too quickly." "Have I told you about the Bluebird, and how, though he only sheds his feathers once a year, yet his winter coat is rusty and not bright clear blue as it is in spring ?" "I think not," answered Nat.
"Well, the outside edges of its feathers are blue, but a little deeper in the feather is brownish.

So when they have worn the same feathers many months, and rubbed in and out of their little houses and bathed a great deal and cleaned their feathers off every day in the dust, as birds always do, the blue ends wear off and the rusty parts show.

It is quite worth while to tell little people things when they have the patience to listen and the interest to remember." "Yes, uncle, but it's the way you tell us about birds that makes us remember.

You talk as if they were real people." "Oh, oh, Nat!" laughed the Doctor, "if you flatter me so I shall have to hide my head in a bush like an Ostrich.

Birds _are_ people, though of another race from ours, and I am happy if I can make you think so.