,The .Wit of the Wild 



r 



in multiplied and ever-fastening threads from 

 which there exudes a poison that paralyzes his 

 efforts. And so he is caught and held, and 

 gradually brought up to the body of the jelly- 

 fish to be devoured. Now, this is not only a liv- 

 ing trap, but includes a lure as well, for the 

 jelly-fish is phosphorescent, and its pulsating 

 flashes of light attract the attention of the small 

 creatures who swim toward their ruin. Un- 

 doubtedly one of the effects, if not purposes (a 

 word that must be used very cautiously in nat- 

 ural history), of the phosphorescence that be- 

 longs to so many marine animals is to act as 

 an attraction to animals that are needed as food. 

 It has not been known until recently that 

 birds do anything in the way of luring victims 

 within their power or at any rate, anything 

 further than the use our sapsucker makes of 

 his " honey-pots." This bird is the American 

 yellow-bellied woodpecker, which digs hundreds 

 of little pits in the bark of sweet-sapped trees 

 such as the apple, basswood and maple (produc- 

 ing in the last-named injuries that result in 

 "bird's-eye maple"), and greedily drinks the 

 <*$ 148 &* 



