OF THE UNITED STATES 439 



the power of even making the same buzzing that the bees do, 

 producing it upon similar occasions. Did space allow, numerous 

 examples of this variety of mimicry might be cited here. 



Frequently certain animals are very obnoxious to others, for 

 one reason or another; then these are seen to be very highly 

 colored, or as we say, exhibit warning coloration. Our bright lit- 

 tle Harlequin snake (Elaps) is a familiar example of this, and the 

 skunk among mammals is very distinctly colored, and apparently 

 on this account. 



Just at this moment I do not happen to recall the name of a 

 naturalist who has had anything to say about cases of protec- 

 tive mimicry in bats, yet it is frequently to be noticed. One 

 warm evening last autumn I was passing through an extensive 

 swamp, in which there was a close undergrowth of hazel, oaks, 

 dwarf magnolias, and dogwood. Many of the leaves had already 

 been changed to a great variety of shades of brown, bay, chest- 

 nut, and the like, and many had already fallen to the ground. 

 For a moment I stood quiet with my gun to re-catch the note of 

 a vireo that I had heard, but the bird had escaped me. The 

 twigs of the undergrowth came very close to my face, and I had 

 been peering among those of a small oak for several moments. 

 By the command of the advancing season, many of its leaves 

 were now curled up and changed to bright browns of divers 

 shades, and at a passing glance one of these seemed to me to pos- 

 sess unusually black vein markings, and I reached out to pull it 

 off its twig. All this took but the fraction of an instant, and just 

 before my hand came in contact with this supposed-to-be leaf I 

 discovered it .to be a fine specimen of the male of our little Red 

 bat (Atalapha borealis). This little animal had been suspended 

 w r ithin a yard of my face for certainly nearly ten minutes, and yet 

 I had noticed it only as I came to move away. As it hung there by 

 its feet, its resemblance to a dead and withered leaf was truly 

 remarkable, and I studied this effect very closely before I secured 

 the specimen. 



Dr. A. K. Fisher, of the United States Agricultural Depart- 

 ment at Washington, D. C., once told me of an interesting inci- 

 dent of this kind that happened to him. He was engaged in de- 

 stroying caterpillars in a fruit tree, using for the purpose a long 

 pole with a small fire-wad upon the end of it. Some of the cater- 

 pillars were in the dead and crumbled leaves, and these he was 

 touching with the flame, passing from one to the other. In the 



