Changeable.

Otago Witness, Issue 2210, 9 July 1896, Page 47

Changeable.

The power of changing colour as a protootlon ngainst eucmiea Is more gener/il iv auiroal life Ih&n is commoDly supposed. Iv the doeerb, for instance, almost every &nitn*l takes on a sandy hue, while in tropical regions variegated colours are very numerous, these colours in the o»so of birds and in?ecis being usually adapted to re« Berable more or less olosely the colour of the vegetation (hey frequent, and making them, ab a little distance, Almost indistinguuhabla from it. For tho same reason animals dwelling ia snowy regions almost invariably during tho winter months chango to a white colour.

Et en spiders adopt this mttuodof protection. Ia tho south of Franco oertavu epeojts of epidois, when in search of prey, hide in fcho convolvulus flower", and it was noticod that each differently tinted ibwr wiib vW f od, by epidera of tho same colour : tbo white (loners were frequented by a white variety of spider, a greenish- coloured variety made the gceen Qomtß (heir homo, while a pink speolos took position iv the piak .flowers. At one time the colours of fc!u se Ihree sets of "fepidfers were ' supposed to be permanently d ff. rent/ bub it bus recently b ej discovered that the co'our of Sny ona if Ib^c spider* changes within a few dtys of i's btiug piMred iv the convolvulus of a difforout colour from' that which it had been uttng as its home. Four spiders— pinir, white, greco, au^ yellow— were put in a box togethw. 1 , and within thro* daye all had changed to white.