COLOR IN ANIMALS 



127 



jaguar, a forest species and a tree climber, the blotches on 

 whose skin resemble the confused shadows among the trees 

 (Plate 68, B\ 



FIG. 35. Arctic fox, in winter and in summer pelage. [After BEUDARU.] 



Alluring colors and resemblances. 



There are a few examples of a still more remarkable 

 use of color and resemblance. In India there is a Mantis 

 which in shape and color resembles an orchid blossom 

 (Fig. 36). It deceives butterflies and other insects, which 

 it captures as they approach the seeming flower. In Java 

 there is a spider which resembles a bit of bird-excrement 

 upon which butterflies are so apt to light. This resem- 

 blance enables it to capture the butterflies upon which it 

 feeds. Forbes, in his interesting book, A Naturalist's Wan- 

 derings in the Eastern Archipelago, thus describes his 

 discovery of this peculiar spider: "I had been allured 

 into a vain chase after one of those large, stately flitting 

 butterflies (Hestia) through a thicket of prickly Padanus 



