their perching have the requisite constancy of position relative to the prevail- 

 ing light, are, in almost every case, obliteratively shaded. Thus their great, 

 globular bodies are 'flattened out,' and, with the further aid of background- 

 picturing patterns, of one sort or another, practically effaced. Some wear 

 tree-bark and rock-surface pictures, more or less generalized, others leafy 

 or grassy ground pictures. Those which swing free in flat, open webs have 

 sometimes very bold and brilliant patterns — flower-like, dewdrop-like, and 

 like black shadow-vistas amid small, sunlit vegetable forms. Some of these 

 brightly patterned spiders have the upside-down habit, and their counter 

 shading is of course inverted, like that of so many caterpillars. Some of 

 them, with globose and highly colored abdomens, have slender, flat gray 

 heads, duly counter shaded, which in time of watch and quiet are laid against 

 a specially constructed patch or trail of glaucous, opaque web, which they 

 match exactly. (See Fig. 127.) The big, round abdomen, meanwhile, is 

 either separately but equally well 'flattened' by counter shading, and 'merged' 

 by picture-patterns into its background of sunlight and shadow, grasses and 

 flowers, or it presents a mimetic likeness to some single, solid landscape-detail 

 — flower, berry, seed pod, or curled-up leaf. 



'Hole-picturing' (Chapter XXII, Fig. 120) is a common detail of disguise 

 among the more richly patterned kinds. 



The dainty white spider* shown in Plate XVI, Figs. V, W, X and Y, well 

 illustrates a fact to which we alluded early in the book, namely, the greenness of 

 foliage-filtered sunlight, potent in its visual effect on animals' colors, particu- 

 larly white. In some views amidst sunlit leaves, this actually porcelain-white 

 spider (Figs. V and Y) looked even greener than Figs. W and X show him. 



The next and final chapter will treat scantily of the most beautiful and 

 elaborately colored of all insects, if not of all animals, namely, the Lepidop- 

 tera in the perfect state, or butterflies and moths. 



* This species has also a yellow phase. 



211 



