CHAPTER XIV. 
PROTECTIVE RESEMBLANCE. Pe 
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 
which 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 
