WALKING-STICKS AND WALKING-LEAVES. 67 



that escape destruction prove : without them, they must 

 soon be exterminated. There is no family to which 

 this protection is more indispensable, and in none, per- 

 haps, is it so generally and so perfectly possessed. 

 Given a walking-stick hugging the stem of a bush or 

 a leaf, with its two hinder pairs of legs stretched straight 

 alongside the body, the front pair outstretched in the 

 opposite direction, and the antennce snugly tucked 

 between them, the deception immeasurably increased in 

 efficacy by its immobility, it must be a sharp-sighted 

 creature to ever discover its presence. Even those 

 provided with the most splendid and expansive wings 

 use them rarely, and that -use, as we have seen, is 

 of the briefest description. Whenever they settle the 

 great wings close ; their beauties are no longer displayed. 

 An insectivorous foe spying such a walking-stick in 

 flight, and making for it, would search in vain for what 

 he had seen ; the gorgeous aerial being alighting, had 

 suddenly transformed itself into its more habitual 

 unobservable stick shape. 



Leaf-Insects. 



All these Phasmidce are noted for their lank and 

 usually slender bodies and legs. But there is an ex- 

 ceptional form of walking-stick. These have remarkably 



