The Magnolia gazette. [volume] (Magnolia, Miss.) 1872-current, 1886-02-05

iAuo VIC diI anu dionS une SrouHu III u
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-
suer's attention is drawn to the squirm-
ing member, the animal itself escapes"
"But it loses its tailp" suggested the
reporter.
'.Only for a 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.
"f," continued the naturalist 1--WE
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
moss covered twig that even a close
examination sometimes puzzled the OBJ
server. The leaf insects are
particularly interesting, as they
are almost exact in their rescm-.
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.
Zone 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 favorite plant and closes
| its wings, it becomes at once an exact
mimic of the white blotches of the under
| surface.
sThese animals continued the
l'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 q 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 a 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
''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 found
necessary to send out q 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
| root, when, to his astonishment, it
| gave way and turned into man, and in
| a moment all the seeming roots started
mp 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 been
overfatigued. Giraffes frequently find
proteetion by standing in groups, hunt
ers 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
full nimic5. Take the sea-cucumbers;
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
its 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
all creatures we find this state of things.
.'But to 60 back to the geckos,'' said
the naturalist, leading the way to door
leading out, to an open porch on the
sunny side of the house, where a mum.
Der of lizards were corralled on a shelf
81 find you have some tail-throwers in
California. These lizards / caught in
/ Alx fl.1x.x -