C j t~z 
Packard.] 
INSECTS AS MIMICS. 
257 
V 
10. Insists as Mimics. 
M AN, especially in his savage state, is as a rule obliged 
to resort to various subterfuges to provide himself 
with animal food. The hunter tracks his quarry 
through the woods, his dress of hides, or his naked skin 
harmonizing with the dusky hues of the forest; his step is 
wary and light, his weapons are noiseless, the deer falling 
dead from his arrow, the bird from his blow gun without 
startling their fellows; or he hunts them by traps, from 
behind screens or while hidden by the foliage of trees. At 
times he disguises himself, and stalks the deer dressed in 
the head and skin of one of their own kind. He mimics 
their voices, calling the moose by means of a birch bark 
horn, and whistling to the woodcock or snipe. 
The civilized sportsman, if he would be successful in the 
chase, adapts his hunting suit to the colors of the field or 
woodland, wearing gray or green, some color harmonizing 
with the landscape through which he ranges. Even his 
pointers or setters are- protected by their tan-brown hue. 
He makes decoy ducks, and tolls in a flock of ducks or geese 
flying overhead or feeding off-shore beyond the reach of his 
gun. The fact that birds and quadrupeds are so easily 
deceived is a good proof that the use of disguises among 
animals in a state of nature is an actual fact. If some 
birds can be deceived by clumsy, painted, wooden decoys, 
others may mistake a caterpillar for a twig, a weevil for a 
bud, or an edible butterfly mimicking one which they gen¬ 
erally discard as too nauseous to their taste. 
All this mimicry on the part of man is conscious. What 
is often necessary witlr man is still more essential with 
animals. In the animal world there is an unconscious mim- 
17 1 
