OF THE UNITED STATES 



439 



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

 producing it upon similar occasions. l>id 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 1 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 1 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 brighl 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 (AtalapJia borealis). This little animal had been suspended 

 within 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 



