Animals that Wear Disguises 



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day, flitting from stump to stump, for it 

 chooses only to alight upon dead stubs. The 

 instant it thinks itself observed it straightens 

 up, stiffens every muscle, and becomes to the eye 

 merely a spike or splinter of its perch. 



A large Australian relative, the " more-pork," 

 does this trick so well and quickly that you may 

 almost touch the bird with your cane in point- 

 ing it out to a friend, yet the chances are that 

 he will be unable to see it in fact, more than 

 one person has placed his hand upon a more- 

 pork perched upon some fence, without sus- 

 pecting that it was anything more than a knot, 

 until he touched it. 



Both these birds maintain their rigid dis- 

 guises as long as any reason for alarm remains, 

 and few lose their lives from hawks. 



An African member of the family is very con- 

 spicuous when it flies about in the dusk by rea- 

 son of a long, bright feather streaming out 

 from its wings, and it would be in constant 

 peril of discovery and destruction when at rest 

 during the day did it not hide these telltale 

 plumes. So it rests in the grass and lifts its 



