232 LEAVES FROM THE 







I have often traced (writes an excellent observer) a remarkable 

 resemblance between the animal and the general appearance of 

 the locality in which it is found. This I first remarked at an early 

 I^eriod of my life, when entomology occupied a part of my attention. 

 No person following this interesting pursuit can fail to observe the 

 extraordinary likeness which insects bear to the various abodes in 

 which they are met with. Thus, among the long green grass w^e 

 find a variety of long green insects, whose legs and antennae so 

 resemble the shoots emanating from the stalks of the grass, that it 

 requires a practised eye to distinguish them. Throughout sandy 

 districts, varieties of insects are met with of a colour similar to the 

 sand which they inhabit. Among the green leaves of the various 

 trees of the forest, innumerable leaf-coloured insects are to be found ; 

 while, closely adhering to the rough, grey bark of these forest-trees, 

 we observe beautifully-coloured, grey-looking moths, of various 

 patterns, yet altogether so resembling the bark as to be invisible to 

 the passing observer. In like manner, among quadrupeds I have 

 traced a considerable analogy ; for, even in the case of the stupendous 

 elephant, the ashy colom- of his hide so corresponds with the 

 general appearance of the grey thorny jungles which he frequents 

 throughout the day, that a person unaccustomed to hunting 

 elephants, standing on a commanding situation, might look down 

 upon a herd and fail to detect their presence. And further, in the 

 case of the giraffe, which is invariably met with among venerable 

 forests, where innumerable blasted and weatherbeaten trunks and 

 stems occur, I have repeatedly been in doubt as to the presence of 

 a troop of them, until I had recourse to my spy- glass ; and on 

 referring the case to my savage attendants, I have known even their 

 optics to fail, — at one time mistaking their dilapidated trunks for 

 camelopards, and again confounding real camelopards with those 

 aged veterans of the forest.* 



The Wizard of the North, who had a keen eye for the 

 harmonies of nature — and what poet, who is fond of 

 field-sports, has not? — frequently manifests the results 

 of his observation on animals and their haunts in his 

 immortalities, whether of verse or prose. 



So far was heard the mighty knell. 

 The stag sprung up on Cheviot Fell, 



* A Hunter's Life in South Africa. By Roualeyn Gordon 

 Gumming, Esq. 



