The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1886-02-03

Pouuce upOH us prey WueH jill DIV oHCe
two lizards appear, one making off
while the other dances up and down
into the air and along the ground in a
very mysterious way, so that the aston
ished bird stops and looks. In the mean
time the original lizard escapes; the
other, that is really the tail, soon be-
comes quiescent. You see the gecko
has the faculty of throwing off its tail
when hard pressed, and while the pur-
suers attention is drawn to the squirm-
ing member, the animal itself escapes"
But it loses its tailp" suggested the
reporter.
"Only for time. They can repro
duce this organ, and, curiously enough,
sometimes two tails are produced instead
of one. There is great variety of these
geckos, and they all have some protec-
ton. In another class of lizards, as the
anolis and chameleon, the other
changes, and they are enabled to adapt
themselves to any location in which
they may find themselves.
"If,' continued the naturalist, eve
look among insects, we find remark
able display of mimics. Perhaps you
have noticed in the woods how often
butterflies dart up where you have not
noticed them. They have been protect.
ed by their stimulation to the leaves and
flowers, and the birds that prey upon
them are equally deceived. In the
southern part of this State wonderful
examples are seen in the walking-sticks
and the mantis The former seem to be
actual twigs, endowed with life, the
body is straight, seeming a twig, while
the legs are like branches from it, and
with its slow methodical movements it
would hardly be considered living
creature. Some of these in South Amer
lea attain a length of eight inches. An
allied form in Central America. found
by Belt, the naturalist, so mimiced a
moss covered twig that even close
examination sometimes puzzled the OBJ
server. The leaf insects are
particularly interesting, as they
are almost exact in their resem-
blance to dead and living leaves; so
much so that they even deceive the for
aging ants that rush over them, not
suspecting that in the fallen leaf is the
willy mimic they would fain capture.
Among the plume moths are many OF
such delicacy that they resemble the
down Of plants in their flight through
the air, and when alighting on flower
their animal nature would never be sus-
pected.
"One of the most beautiful cases OF
protective mimicry is that OF the orange
tip butterfly. When open it is very
plainly seen, its wings being of white,
black and orange, and flying about is
quite conspicuous, but as soon as il
alights upon favorite plant and closes
its wings, it becomes at once an exact
mimic of the white blotches of the under
surface.
"These animals continued the
speaker, "you see, generally mimic
plants or twigs, but there are others that
are more remarkable from the fact that
they mimic animals that from their pois.
onous qualities are safe from attack.
Tins it is well known that birds do not
especially care for hairy butterflies. In
Central America Belt found curious
beetle that was a. tidbit for the birds,
clothed in a coat of long brown
hairs, closely resembling the thick hairy
caterpillars. In the same localities
spiders have been found that looked ex.
actly like ants, and were thus enabled tc
creep upon their prey, the real ants
Wallace observed a butterfly that, though
an acceptable morsel to the birds, de.
ceived them by mimicking the fight o.
a poisonous butterfly If a bird chased
it, it at once assumed the curious anC
laborious ight of its poisonous model
and the bird noticing it's evident mis-
take, would always give up the pursuit
"In Africa there is tribe that utilize
the art of mimicry very much as do the
lower animals. The natives are great
thieves, and at one time it was founc
necessary to send out troop of English
soldiers to break them up. The latter
finally came up to band that they hae
followed several days, and having cor
nered some of them drove them into {
valley, only to find that they had agar
escaped. The soldiers, tired and worn
refused to go further, and, dismounting
led their horses to some stumps and roots
that lay scattered about. One of thu
officers took off his hat and hung it upor
root, when, to his establishment, i
gave way and turned into man, and ir
a moment all the seeming roots started
up and dashed away. They were the ma
tives that had placed themselves in these
strange positions hoping that the soldiers
would pass by, which they certainly
would have done had they not beer
overfatigued. Giraffes frequently fine
protection by standing in groups, hunt
ers taking their long necks for trees
So the tawny skin Of the lion helps tt
conceal it, and the stripes of the tige1
and zebra are supposed to be protect
i've.
Under the sea we find some wonder
full nimics Take the sea-cucumbers
their mouths initiate seaweeds OF al
sorts and shapes, some actually looking
like toadstools. If you take the com
mon pentacta and place it in an aquari
UNI the creature will at once bury itsel
out of sight, and soon beautiful plan
will begin to grow, first one tip appear
ing and then another, until shrub il
seen waving among the other weeds
seemingly part OF them. At tn
slightest warning it is gone, only to re
appear again. the humble mimic in thi
way feeding in security Many Of tn
fishes are protected by their resemblance
to rocks, as the toad fish; the angler ant
its kind are covered with barbels o
flesh that mimic seaweed. The spide
crabs mimic moss-covered rocks, ant
often bedeck themselves with moss t.
increase their security, and so among