Animals that Wear Disguises 



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upright rushes and their shadows, and so has 

 disguised himself as a bit of marsh, and if you 

 walk slowly around him he will turn as if on a 

 pivot and so make no alteration either in his 

 attitude or aspect. In consequence many a 

 silent bittern is never seen at all. 



In a somewhat similar way to the seaweed- 

 haunting fishes mentioned above, the South 

 American river turtle called matamata has ac- 

 quired a disguise which enables it not only to 

 escape its enemy the alligator, but to secure its 

 own prey of fish and little reptiles. Its shell 

 is dark-colored and rough, so that it is imper- 

 ceptible among the aquatic vegetation amid 

 which the animal lurks, and all over its brown- 

 black head and long neck, outstretched and 

 ready to seize its victims, grow a multitude of 

 strings and knobs of dark skin which so pre- 

 cisely imitate a plant stem that often a fish 

 will swim unsuspectingly right into its jaws. 



The great cayman himself may be said to 

 assume the appearance of a knobbed and slimy 

 drift log as he lies on the mud of the river mar- 

 gin or floats motionless at the surface of the 



$ 117 



