CHAPTER XIV. 



PROTECTIVE RESEMBLANCE. 



Closely related to the foregoing subjects is the protective 

 resemblance or " mimicry" of natural objects by which spe- 

 cies of animals are preserved from extinction. Animals may 

 " mimic" or imitate, or be assimilated in shape or in color 

 to natural objects, as stones, lichens, dry bushes, the bark 

 of trees, or portions of leaves, or entire leaves, fresh or 

 dried, and their stems, or so closely imitate other animals 

 Vfhich enjoy an immunity from attack as to escape notice 

 or attacks from their enemies, and thus prolong their own 

 lives and that of their species. 



The animal is, as a rule, unconscious that it is thus pro- 

 tected ; though there are examples, as in the case of the 

 trap-door and other spiders, which cover their holes in such 

 a way to avoid notice that it would appear as if they were 

 semi-conscious or aware of what they were doing. 



In the first place, we know that animals may be deceived, 

 as is proved by the various subterfuges employed by hunters 

 in tolling or deceiving the larger quadrupeds, the use of 

 decoy-ducks, by which water-fowl are often thoroughly de- 

 ceived and brought within reach, of the gun. 



The disguises worn by animals, the exquisite adaptation 

 of the colors of their fur or feathers to their surroundings, 

 are part of the general harmony existing throughout nature. 

 Desert animals are rusty or light-colored ; birds and insects 

 and lizards, as well as frogs and tree-toads, which live among 

 trees, are green ; those which live among the trunks and 

 larger branches of trees assimilate in color to the color of 

 the bark. The cougar, which clings to the trunk of some 



