The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-07-24
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ANIMAL POWERS or MIMICnY.
An Elephants Successful stimulation
of Death


From the New York Evening Post.
There are number Of very clever MINI
les in the animal kingdom. some Of which
are aware of their power, while others
seem 10 be endowed py nature with mimet-
ic colors or shapes. Many animals when
alarmed become unconsciously mlmics.
Hares stop in the middle OF a field and inn
itate rocks or bushes as they crouch. Ger.
tain insects feign death, az such times per-
hitting the toughest kind Of handling even
suffering themselves TO be pulled limb from
limb before showing by a struggle that
they are alive. An elephant has been
known to play the same clever trick upon
a hunter. When followed closely Il sud
denly fell In ITS tracks--a might collapse
aud apparently died The sportsman sur
vcycd 1t in triumph, then left for camp,
intending to return in the morning and
secure the tusks. Bat, as soon as the men
were out of sight, the willy animal, which
had so successfully mmicked death, rose
10 his feet and ran into the bush.
The animals which possess a defensive
mInicry are the most interesting. Such a
ono Is a little fish which the writer has
often found as an attendant TO the beauti-
ful and highly dangerous Portuguese man
o'-war or Dhysalia. This animal. allied to
ire jelly fishes, Is hubble floating on the
upon which Is a fiuted, satn-like sail,
which can be raised or lowered at viii.
From the iower portions depends a mass
of deep blue tcntacles rich in color. the
tint Of the oceans heart. Some of these
are the food-catchers, and are charged
with lassos or myriads of darts which
shoot into an enemy at the slightest touch,
with the effect Of an electric shock. SO
deadly are these little javelins that 1 have
seen "A Aardne Killed at the mere contact.
The tcntuClcs hang, dangling, in the wa
ter, attractive bats; but " a small fish
touches them It Is killed seemingly upon
the instant j once found a hawk s. bin
turtle, which must have weighed 10 or u
pounds, lying upon the surface, It's head
cnVeloped in the blue mass OF tenracles,
while an Ordinary-sized physalia nearly
caused my own death, the tentacles cover
ing me as / swan over it.
The virulence of the poison possess ed
by the animal may be imagined. yet
among those death-dealing organs, swim
ming about freely, and, more marvellous
stll initiating them perfectly in color,
were numbers Of fishes from one to two
and a half inches in length the tint Of
the two opposing was exact, and any
one not expecting 20 see the fishes would
fail to distinguish them from the tenta-
Giles, so exact Is the similarity between
the two This Is one Of the most remark
able examples of mimicrg in the animal
kingdom. That the fishes are protected
from enemies by their disguise there can
be little doubt, the little attendants at a
short distance resembling the tentacular
portions of their host
The transparent pink and amber jelly
fishes. which are so respondent at night,
possess little attendant fishes which are
wonderful mimics Instead Of being blue,
as In the physalia, they are almost trans
parent. resembling the tentacles OF The
jelly fish, the fins being delicately tinted
with pink These little creatures pose in
various positions among the long tenta-
cles. and a a distance Of a foot can hardly
be distinguished from the depending por-
tons Of the animal which they mimic.
The observer Of these natural mimics
can but wonder at the remarkable re-