FLOWERS, FEATHERS AND FINS 



673 



should be protected in every way even introduced, and 

 encouraged to breed upon every grain farm in the country. 

 In studying various animals and living things in nature, 

 one is often confronted with what has been aptly de- 

 scribed by naturalists as cases of "protective resem- 

 blance." Some interesting instances of this are met with 

 among owls, as for example in the "gray phase" of our 

 common screech owl, which, when perched upon a mossy, 

 dead limb of no great size, with its body drawn up in an 

 elongated fashion, and with its feather-horns fully erect, 

 closely resembles a dead and broken branch, and many a 

 screech owl has owed its life to this remarkable resem- 

 blance. To study some of the most extraordinary exam- 

 ples of this protective resemblance, however, we should 

 turn to the insect world. Cases are to be met with among 

 insects in every quarter of the globe, and a very note- 

 worthy one is to be seen in our common stick insect of 

 the Eastern States. In Figure 12 one of these is shown 

 reproduced from a photograph from life. It is ex- 

 tremely difficult to recognize one of these fellows among 

 the small green twigs of the tree or plant upon which it 

 may be resting, especially if it extends its fore-pair of 

 limbs to the front, 

 bringing them 

 close together, as 

 it often does. Its 

 resemblance then 

 to a small, green 

 and leafless twig is 

 almost perfect, and 

 its enemies or 

 would-be torment- 

 ors and destroyers 

 almost invaria- 

 bly pass it by un- 

 noticed. 



In some of the 

 books these insects 

 are called "walk- 

 ing-sticks" from 

 the deliberation of 

 their movements 

 and locomotion 

 {F h a s m i d ae). 

 Belle Cragin says 

 of them: "The in- 

 sects have 

 so strong a resem- 

 blance to brown 

 and green twigs 

 and stems that it 

 takes a sharp eye 

 to detect them 

 when they are at 



rest. The body, legs, and antennae are long and slender. Our 

 one common species has no wings, bat the tropical spe- 

 cies have wings that look precisely like leaves. They 

 walk slowly and awkwardly. The middle pair of legs is 

 the shortest. They feed on the leaves of trees and plants." 



THrS IS ONK OF THE MOST INTKRKSTING 

 OF ALL THE S.MALLER OWLS IN OUR 

 AVIFAUNA. 

 Fig. n In the southwestern parts of the United 

 States there are found various species of elf and 

 pygmy owls that are little bits of fellows The 

 one here shown is considerably larger, and is an 

 eastern species. It is called the Saw-whet, as 

 its call sounds like the noise made when sharp- 

 ening a saw. 



This protective resemblance occurs throughout nature but 

 more especially in the animal world. It must not be con- 

 founded with "protective mimicry," which is quite a differ- 

 ent thing. Then, some forms are capable of more or less sud- 

 denly changing the color of their skin, and by so doing 



match, to a greater 

 or less extent, their 

 surround ings, 

 which at once ren- 

 der them far less 

 easy to be seen by 

 an enemy or other 

 observer. A good 

 example of this is 

 to be noted in our 

 common American 

 chameleon of the 

 Southern States 

 {Anolis p r in c i- 

 palis). It possesses 

 the power of as- 

 suming a variety 

 of colors, ranging 

 all the way from a 

 deep snuff-brown 

 to a pale pea-green 

 t he desired 

 change being ac- 



A.MOXG INSECTS THE WALKING STICKS COmpHshed with 

 PRESENT THE MOST RE.MARKABLE EX- , , 



AMPLES OF PROTECTIVE RESEMBLANCE, more or less celcr- 



Fig. 12 The life history of our "stick insects" -^ TViic liyarH 



is wonderfully interesting, and there is consid- ^^J- ^ i\\^ lizaru 



erable literature on the subject. Dr. L. O. How- r . , . 



ard tells us that "in 1898 this insect appeared in O I t e n attains a 



extraordinary numbers in a black-walnut forest , , r 



in western New York, so that in the autumn the length Ot SCVeU Or 



dropping of the eggs on the leaf-covered earth . , . , , 



sounded like a heavy shower of rain." The eight lUChCS ; aUQ 



specimen here shown is of a bright green color. it, 



along the bayous in 

 lower Louisiana, it is interesting to observe a big one 

 cautiously creep down the dark trunk of a cypress tree, 

 which latter has some of its roots extending into the 

 waters of the bayou. Should one make a pass at this 

 lizard with the intention of capturing it, and miss it, the 

 fellow will dart down the trunk spirally as quick as a 

 flash, and, quitting the tree, leap onto one of the stems of 

 the pickerel weeds growing in the water. Then, cau- 

 tiously creeping up on the further side of this, it rapidly 

 changes, as it does so, to a shade of green which more or 

 less closely matches that of the stem of the plant. The 

 fact that the fellow quickly comes to a dead rest still 

 further enhances its safety ; for, being of a decidedly 

 elongate form, from the tip of his nose to the end of his 

 tail, he simulates the green, rod-like stem of the pickerel 

 weed upon which he rests. 



Remarkable examples of protective mimicry are like- 

 wise to be seen among fishes, and no form presents a bet- 

 ter exemplification of this than the peculiar little sea- 

 horse of the Australian seas {Phyllopteryx). Its body 

 and fins, in color and otherwise, have come to be so modi- 

 fied that it, as a whole, looks like a crooked bit of stem 

 . of oceanic seaweed, with the delicate, slender and wavv 

 branchlets floating from it. As it lives among the very 



