HASTY OBSERVATION 261 



one carelessly disposed across the top of th.e bending 

 grass and daisies, but a few feet from where I sat, 

 my eye again came near being baffled. 



The little snake was probably lying in wait for 

 some insect. Presently it slid gently down into the 

 grass, moving so slowly as to escape any but the 

 most watchful eye. After its head and a part of 

 its body were upon the ground, its tail still pointed 

 straight up and exactly resembled some fresh vege- 

 table growth. The safeguard of this little snake is 

 in his protective coloring; hence his movements are 

 slower and more deliberate than those of the other 



This simulation is very common in nature. Every 

 creature has its enemy, and pretends to be that 

 which it is not, in order to escape detection. The 

 tree-frog pretends to be a piece of bark, or a lichen 

 upon a tree; the wood frog is the color of the dry 

 leaves upon which it hops, though when spawning 

 in the little black pools and tarns in spring its color 

 is very dark, like the element it inhabits. 



One day, in my walk in the woods, I disturbed a 

 whip-poor-will where she sat upon her eggs on the 

 ground. When I returned to the spot some hours 

 afterward, and tried to make out the bird upon her 

 nest, my eye was baiHed for some moments, so suc- 

 cessful was she in pretending to be only a mottled 

 stick or piece of fallen bark. 



Only the most practiced eye can detect the par- 

 tridge (ruffed grouse) when she sits or stands in full 

 view upon the ground in the woods. How well she 



