The Wit of the Wild 



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side is plainly colored a fact which goes with 

 the ordinary habit of butterflies of sitting with 

 their wings closed and held upright over their 

 backs, so that the gay colors are hidden and 

 only the plain undersides are exposed. 



In some butterflies of the tropics this disguise 

 is the most perfect probably of all in the animal 

 kingdom. The kallima, a common butterfly of 

 India and Sumatra, simply disappears when it 

 settles on a bush, for it hides its head and an- 

 tennae between its closed wings, which in form, 

 color and veining cannot be distinguished from 

 a withered leaf. The likeness is complete, even 

 to the discolored spots, broken places and bent 

 footstalks. One may safely defy the keenest 

 eye to find the living insect among the leaves, 

 and you may go as close as you please to exam- 

 ine it, for the butterfly understands perfectly 

 well that its disguise is impenetrable as long as 

 it holds still. Scarcely less puzzling cloaks of 

 invisibility are worn by many other butterflies 

 and by various sorts of more or less seden- 

 tary insects. 



Sometimes, however, mimicry is assumed not 



$ 120 5o 



