8 JOURNAL OF THE TRINIDAD 



kind construct their nurseries of sticks, particles of sand and 

 leaves cleverly woven together. Some are miners, and excavate 

 extensive burrows in the ground. All these elaborate con- 

 structions are nurseries, wherein they bring up their little ones 

 and assiduously attend to them through their larval and pupal 

 stages. The slight opening we made in the nest showed that the 

 interior consisted of a series of cells in several stories, the 

 straightness and symmetry of which would make many of our 

 local architects blush, although they were built without the aid 

 of rule or compass. Each cell contained a puj>a or a larva, the 

 former, being sepulchred in their narrow rooms by thin parch- 

 ment caps. 



One of the most curious facts in Natural History, is the 

 wonderful way in which many animals are adapted to concealing 

 themselves from their prey and from their enemies. I have read 

 that that very showy animal — the caged Tiger — is most difficult 

 to see in his native jungle owing to the striking similitude of his 

 stripes to the long dried grass by which he is surrounded. A 

 sleeping Howling Monkey* we are told looks like a heap of moss, 

 and the Slothf presents a similar appearance. When we get to 

 the lower orders of creation we find this protective mimicry in its 

 most prominent form. It is next to impossible to see a Whip 

 Snake, j even in an almost leafless shrub, his long lithe body 

 looking exactly like the trailing branches, his sharply pointed 

 nose appearing to be a shoot. With his head and neck he fre- 

 quently cleverly imitates the swaying of the branches of the bush 

 on which he lies (he rarely coils) under a gentle breeze. There 

 are spiders,§ which imitate ants ; and insects] | which seem to be 

 fungus ; grass hoppers,^! which look like leaves, caterpillars 

 which at first sight seem to be spiders ; and beetles closely 

 resembling bark. Therefore it is not surprising we should 

 have found some remarkable cases of protective mimicry. 

 Upon a shrub growing close to the ruin of an old house 

 there were some small objects looking like green leaves 

 just sprouting, but these same leaves, if we attempted to pluck 

 them, had a trick of nimbly disappearing side-ways round the 

 branch in a most un-leaf-like fashion. These creatures are com- 

 monly called " leaf hoppers."** The same plant yielded a still 

 more marvellous illustration of mimicry. On the under side of a 



*Mycetes seniculus. 



fCholcepus didaetylus. 



jOxybellis acuminata. 



gAttidae. 



j,Orthesia and Tettigonidae. 



II Steirodon dentatus St. and others. 



**Tettigonida? sp 



