Animals that Wear Disguises 



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its body, gray or light brown in color, looks 

 much like a stick from two to six inches long, 

 and its legs are prolonged into wiry appendages 

 equally dry and twig-like. In the tropics the 

 walking-sticks are large, varied and numerous, 

 and Alfred Russel Wallace tells of one which he 

 found in the East Indies whose body was covered 

 by little greenish excrescences that perfectly 

 resembled a kind of wood moss common on the 

 trees there, so much so that even the sharp-eyed 

 Dyaks were completely deceived. These dry 

 stick-like insects walk slowly about the twigs of 

 trees, feeding upon the juices of the bark, and 

 have no means of defense against nor escape 

 from birds, monkeys and other insect-eaters, 

 except to trust to their invisibility. 



The same need of protection against the dan- 

 ger of being eaten causes many moths and but- 

 terflies to assume the disguises of a dead leaf 

 whenever they rest. Every one knows that as 

 a rule moths are dully colored on the upper side 

 of their wings, which lie out flat when the moth 

 is at rest, whereas in butterflies the brilliant 

 tints are upon the upper side while the under- 

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