PKOTECTIVE COLOEATION. Ill 



* boys ' were procuring for me some botanical specimens from 

 a bigh tree, I was ratber dreamily looking on tbe sbrubs 

 before me, when I became conscious of my eyes resting on a 

 bird-excreta-marked leaf. How strange, I thougbt, it is tbat 

 I have never got anotber specimen of tbat curious spider 

 I found in Java wbich simulated a patcb just like tbis ! I 

 plucked tbe leaf by tbe petiole wbile so cogitating, and 

 looked at it balf listlessly for some moments, mentally re- 

 marking bow closely tbat otber spider bad copied nature ; 

 wben, to my deligbted surprise, I discovered I bad actually 

 secured a second specimen, but tbe imitation was so exquisite 

 tbat I really did not perceive bow matters stood for some 

 moments. Tbe spider never moved wbile I was plucking or 

 twirling tbe leaf, and it was only w;ben I placed tbe tip of my 

 little finger on it, tbat 1 observed tbat it was a spider, wben 

 it, witbout any displacement of itself, flasbed its falces into 

 my flesb. 



" Tbe first specimen I got was in West Java. Wbile bunting 

 •one day for lepidoptera, I observed a specimen of one of tbe 

 HesperidfB sitting, as is often a custom of tbeirs, on tbe 

 excreta of a bird on a leaf ; I crept near it, intending to 

 examine wbat tbey find in wbat one is inclined to consider 

 incongruous food for a butterfly. I approached nearer and 

 nearer, and at last caught it between my fingers, wben I 

 found, tbat it bad, as I thought, become glued by its feet to 

 tbe mass ; but on pulling gently, tbe spider, to my amazement, 

 disclosed itself by letting go its bold. Only then did I 

 discover tbat I was not looking on a veritable bird's excreta." 

 There are numerous otber examples of protective resemblances 

 in spiders. 



Prof. Edouard Heckel has described and illustrated * with 

 • Bulletin Scieni. France et Bchj., t. xxiii. (1891). 



