40 THE WONDER OF LIFE 



leafy conditions the startling effect would be enhanced — 

 a sudden throwing off of the mantle of invisibility and the 

 exposure of a conspicuous black body with a large red 

 mouth. 



There is no end to these effective adaptations, and all 

 that we are concerned with here is the illustration of a very 

 remarkable aspect of the drama of hfe. We know how 

 cuttlefishes throw dust (or ink) in the eyes of their pursuers ; 

 how the skunks repel by their loathsome stench ; how the 

 starfish escapes by surrendering an arm, the crab by giving 

 up its claw, and the hzard by parting with its tail ; how 

 the puss-moth caterpillar puts on ' a terrifying attitude ', 

 and the cat effectively ' bluffs ' the dog. Of a truth it 

 may be said of Life that it has sought out many inventions. 



Intricate Situations. — Other illustrations of the dra- 

 matic element in Animate Nature may be found in the 

 frequent occurrence of intricate situations. Many of 

 these arise from the complex inter-relations which have 

 in the course of time been estabUshed. As we propose 

 to give many examples of these inter-relations in a subse- 

 quent chapter, it may suffice here to recall the general 

 Darwinian conception of the ' Web of Life ', — that Nature 

 is a vibrating system most surely and subtly inter- 

 connected. No organism hves or dies quite to itself, 

 each being in some way correlated with some other. 



In Illustration : Cuckoo-Spit. — The impression of the 

 subtlety and intricacy of hfe, which we wish to convey, 

 might be illustrated by taking rare and quaint instances, 

 but the commonest things, curiously enough, are always 

 the most striking. In early smnmer in temperate countries 

 nothing is commoner on the herbage than the splashes of 

 white froth which are often called ' cuckoo-spit '. The 



