THE NATURALIST.

Otago Witness, Issue 2785, 31 July 1907, Page 76

THE NATURALIST.

Birds and Insects in Disguise. "The W : t of the Wild," by Ernest Ingersoll {Unwin, 5s net), contains a very entertaining series" of articles on the habits and customs and curious ingrained intelligence of the beasts, birds, fishes, and ineects that inhabit the wild and have to reckon with man more as an enemy than as a friend. There are stories of "The Seamy S'de of Bird Life," of "Animals that Advertise," of animals that "bluff," that set traps, that are supposed to commit suicide, and, among some score of others, one on "Animals that Wear Disguises." —Disguised as a Bump.— One of our commonest birds is th© whip-pooi-will, yet,, though constantly heard, he- ist "rarely teen, - This is because he goes airGadi/tfilyviQ th^hqurs of darkness. r, r >Fkirfio#fns<3r. mk .security there by hiding,- l?ufc,,r equate baldly upon a log. Jiis 3 plumage,is^njortlfid,,grey and brown, like old bark', yet Qiis) would:" 1 not suffice to conceal him if he 's&i' crosswise, as birds generally do, so hie sits lengthwise, and at once falls into the appearance of a stub of a broken branch. He disguises himself as a "bump on a log." But 6ome- of his relatives in other parts of the world do even, better. Down in the Antilles there i&<& goatsucker — as all of this family &aye long^ been called, _ though none really rob the goats of their milk, and hence nightjar is a. hetter family name — which is abroad during the day, flitting from stump to stump, for it chooses only to alight upon deaxt stubs. The Instant it thinks jtself observed it straighten^ up, stiffens ' every muscle, , and becomes to the eye merely a spike or splinter of its perch. A large Australian relative, the "morepork," does this trick so well and quickly that' you may almost touch the bird with your can© in pointing it out to a friend, yet the chances are that -he wilLbe unable to see it — in fact, more than one person has placed his .hand .upon » mopepork perched upon> some fence without suspecting that it was anything more than a knot, uatil he touched it. ... *The South American river turtle, called roatamata, has acquired a disguise which enables it not only to escape its enemy the alligator, but to secure its own prey of fiah and little reptiles'.' Its shell ie dark-coloured and rough, so thiat It is imperceptible among the aquatic vegetation amid which the animal lurke, and all over its brown-black head and- long neck, outstretched and ready to seize it 9 victims, grow a multitude of strings and knobs of Jark skin which so precisely- imitate a., plant-stem that often a_ fish will swim, unsuspectingly right into its Jaws." The great cayman himself may be said to assume 'the appearance of a knobbed and slimy drift log as he lies on the mud

of the river margin, or floats motionless aj. the surface of th© "rater. . . . — Butterflies in MaaqueraJe.— Very different' in circumstances, but the same in intent, is the disguise of the «lot°h as a bunch of '.'old man's beard" r->ce9, for as he hangs after this manner from the underside of a limb in a Brazilian forest, h>s coarse grey hair co -cerfec ly twembies the mossy draping of '.he trees tr.at no casual eye would suspect that a living* ' animal was there in place of it. . . „ The same need of protection against the danger of being eaten causes many moths and butterflies to assume the disguises of a dead leaf whenever they rest. Everyone knows that as a rule moths are dully coloured on the uppei side of their wings, which lie out flat when the moth is at rest, whereas in butterflies the brilliant tints are* upon th© upper aide, while the underside is plainly coloured — a fact which goes wita. the ordinary habits of butterflies of fitting* with their wings closed and held uprightover their backs, so that the gay tso'.ours are hidden and only the plain undersides a-o exposed. In some butterflies of the tropics this disguise is the most perfect probably of all in the animal kingdom. The kallima, a common butterfly of India and Sumatra, simply disappears when it sptttos en a bi.sh,for it hides its. head and antennae between its closed wings, which in form, colour, and veining cannot be distinguished *com a withered leaf. The likeness is complete, even to the^ discoloured spots, broken Waees and bent footstalks. One may safely defy the keenest eye to find the living insect among the leaves, and you may go as close as you please to examine it, for the butterfly "understands perfectly well that its disguise is impenetrable as !mb *•* it he'ds still. ' At the Bottom of the Sea. The fishes that live in the depths of the sea are remarkable for iheir strange shapes, their long and slender teeth, and their monstrous stomachs One, called the black shallower, has been captured with a fish actually longer than its own body, safely coiled 1 away in its stomach. The pelican, oi the other hand, has an enormous mouth, with a lower jaw longer than its body. Still another has tentacles with phosphorescent organs at their tips, like an electric light on the end of a fishing-rod, with which it angles for its dinner as cleverly and successfully as the most seasoned sportsman might. "Not only do most of thesedwellers in darkness have eyes, but the majority, and particularly the lower orders, aro clad in bright colours. Among the larger fishes, brawns and reds predominate; but some starfishes and ophiurians, and a large number of crustaceans, are scarlet, and one crustacean is an- intense blue. Th© echinoderms, which include such creatures as sea-cucumbers, sea-urchins, and crinoids from the depths, are particularly .striking in colour, rede, greens," yellows, and violets predominating, ac a general rule. In fact, the colouring of the deep-sea inhabitants is as brilliant as that of their relations which live in shallow water, though there are no delicate traceries or ingenious patterns. ' .... It seems strange fhat creatures living in perpetual darkness should be provided with organs of vision and clad in gaudy colours. Th© fact is that the denizens of the depths carry their own private lighting plants around with, them. By means of the phosphorescent light they generate they manage to get around in the gloom and attend to their affairs very comfortably. / Some oephalopods, which belong to the squid, cuttlefish, and nautilus family, are provided with a sort of bull's-eye lantern, with seflector and all complete, by means of which they are able to direct a beam of light on the bottom beneath them as they move about in search of food. A number of sea-worms and serpent-stars are exceedingly phosphorescent, some of the latter emitting a bright blue-and-green light from every joint. Some of the jellyfish family are also capable of an amazing display of phosphorescent light. Sometimes vast numbers of them assemble, and have a grand illumination, which sets th© ocean in as much of a glow as if they were celebrating an ekction triumph or the Fourth of July. Lower in the scale of life far under, the sea are creatures incapable of moving about in search of food. Instead, they are provided with light, which attracts their food to them. As in certain areas they exist in incalculable numbers, they help considerably to illuminate the bottom of the sea in their immediate vicinity,.— EuGßNß Willotjghbt, in tii4 Ocean for April.