, is now of most
vivid hues--scarlet, blue, vermilion, green,--the fleshy tassels and
swollen knobs making him a most extraordinary creature.

Birds are noted for taking exquisite care of their plumage, and if the
feathers become at all dingy or unkempt, we know the bird is in bad
health.

What a time the deer and the bears, the squirrels and the mice, have when
changing their dress! Rags and tatters; tatters and rags! One can grasp a
handful of hair on the flank of a caribou or elk in a zoological park, and
the whole will come out like thistledown; while underneath is seen the
sleek, short summer coat. A bear will sometimes carry a few locks of the
long, brown winter fur for months after the clean black hairs of the
summer's coat are grown. What a boon to human tailors such an opportunity
would be--to ordain that Mr. X. must wear the faded collar or vest of his
old suit until bills are paid!

It is a poor substance, indeed, which, when cast aside, is not available
for some secondary use in Nature's realm; and the hairs that fall from
animals are not all left to return unused to their original elements. The
sharp eyes of birds spy them out, and thus the lining to many a nest is
furnished. I knew of one feathered seeker of cast-off clothing which met
disaster through trying to get a supply at first hand--a sparrow was found
dead, tangled in the hairs of a pony's tail. The chickadee often lights on
the backs of domestic cattle and plucks out hair with which to line some
snug cavity near by for his nest. Before the cattle came his ancestors
were undoubtedly in the habit of helping themselves from the deer's stock
of "ole clo's," as they have been observed getting their building material
from the deer in zoological parks.

Of course the hair of deer and similar animals falls out with the motions
of the creatures, or is brushed out by bushes and twigs; but we must hope
that the shedding place of a porcupine is at a distance from his customary
haunts; it would be so uncomfortable to run across a shred of one's old
clothes--if one were a porcupine!

The skin of birds and animals wears away in small flakes, but when a
reptile changes to a new suit of clothes, the old is shed almost entire. A
frog after shedding its skin will very often turn round and swallow it,
establishing the frog maxim "every frog his own old clothes bag!"

Birds, which exhibit so many idiosyncrasies, appear again as utilizers of
old clothes; although