240 THE COURTSHIP OF ANIMALS 



lurking-place is near the blooms of the great mullein 

 (Verbascum thapsus), where it seizes upon bees coming 

 for honey. Exotic relatives of this species afford far 

 more striking illustrations of this kind. One has a pink, 

 three-lobed body which bears a striking likeness to a 

 withered flower, and it exhales a sweet odour of jasmine. 

 Insects attracted by the smell are thus readily pounced 

 upon. Dr. Trimen, of Cape Town, describes a rose-red 

 species which exactly matches an oleander flower, and to 

 complete the deception the abdomen is marked with 

 white. The same observer, approaching a bush of the 

 yellow-flowered Senecio pubigera, noticed that two of the 

 numerous butterflies settled upon it did not fly away 

 with their companions. Each of these he found to be 

 in the clutches of a spider whose remarkable resemblance 

 to the flower lay not only in its colour, but in the 

 attitude it assumed. ** Holding on to the flower-stalk 

 by the two hinder pairs of legs, it extended the two 

 long front pairs upwards and laterally. In this posi- 

 tion it was scarcely possible to believe that it was not 

 a flower seen in profile, the rounded abdomen represent- 

 ing the central mass of florets, and the extended 

 legs the ray florets ; while to complete the illusion the 

 femora of the front pair of legs, addressed to the thorax, 

 have each a longitudinal red stripe which represents the 

 ferruginous stripe on the sepals of the flower." But 

 more remarkable still is the case cited by my friend Dr. 

 H. O. Forbes. This came under his notice while butterfly- 

 hunting in Java. The butterflies of the family 

 Hesperidcs have a habit of settling on the excreta of 

 birds. Forbes noticed one on a leaf apparently enjoy- 

 ing a feast. Creeping up, he seized hold of this victim 

 of a depraved taste and found it mysteriously held down. 



