The Arizona sentinel., 1886-02-06

!
 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 tail?" suggested the
 reporter.
 "Only for time. They can repro
 duce this organ, and, curiously enough,
 sometimes two tails are produced instead l of one. There is a 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, i've
 look among insects, we find a 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 1 the legs are like branches from it, and
 with its slow methodical movements it
 would hardly be considered a living
 creature Some of these in South Amer
 ica attain length of eight inches. An
 allied form in Central Amerca. found
 by Belt, the naturalist, so mimiced moss covered twig that even close
 examination sometimes puzzled the ob-
 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 it alights upon a 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. Thus it is well known that birds do not especially care for hairy butterflies In Central America Belt found a curious beetle that was 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 to creep upon their prey, the real ants. Wallace observed butterfly that, though an acceptable morsel to the birds, de- ceived them by mimicking the flight of poisonous butterfly. If bird chased it, it at once assumed the curious and laborious flight of its poisonous model, and the bird noticing its evident mis- take, would always give up the pursuit
 ''1n 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 found necessary to send out troop of English soldiers to break them up. The latter finally came up to band that they had followed several days, and having cor nered some of them drove them into a valley, only to find that they had again 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 the officers took off his hat and hung it upon a root, when, to his astonishment, it gave way and turned into man, and in a moment all the seeming roots started up and dashed away. They were the na- 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 been overfatigued. Giraffes frequently find | protection by standing in groups, hunt CTS taking their long necks for trees. So the tawny skin of the lion helps to conceal it, and the stripes of the tiger and zebra are supposed to be protect | i've.
 Under the sea we find some wonder ful mimics. Take the sea-cucumbers; l their mouths initiate seaweeds of all | sorts and shapes, some actually looking | like toadstools. If you take the com mon pentacta and place it in an aquari- um the creature will at once bury itself out of sight, and soon beautiful plant | will begin to grow, first one tip appear ing and then another, until shrub is seen waving among the other weeds, seemingly a part of them. At the slightest warning it is gone, only to re- appear again, the humble mimic in this way feeding in security. Many of the fishes are protected by their resemblance to rocks, as the toad fish; the angler and it's kind are covered with barbels of flesh that mimic seaweed The spider crabs mimic moss-covered rocks, and often bedeck themselves with moss to increase their security, and so among Ill creatures we find this state of things.
 But to go back to the geckos, J said he naturalist, leading the way to door eading out to an open porch on the 'unny side of the house, where num- per of lizards were corralled on shelf T find you have some tail-throwers in California. These lizards I caught in he southern part of the State, and one frightened so badly that it dropped its all and ran, thinking to thus escape; ut l was too quick, and now I am -oariaor fo caa bo,,, lo,,o A |