Oddities Of Nature

[Music] I have had companions asked me while in the jungle why they didn't see more of the wildlife it's there but at war the war and appetites there is every kind of trick to hide from enemies many of the smaller combatants are dressed up in a way to fool the other fellow the most remarkable feature in the tropics along these lines is the walking leaf of salon it's a mere living leaf in every sense of the word vivid green veins like a leaf even the limbs like small leaves with wrinkled ages and it rocks and sways like a leaf of the breeze the walking stick has the same idea only its shape is a bit different like a thin swing and it can do a wiggly little dance right the leaf insect there are many times like this in the tropics curiously enough the mimicry of a stick has been imitated by another insect that lives beneath the surface of stagnant lakes and is called the water stick insects breathe through discs in the side of the body this fella doesn't take chances and sticking the body out of the water it has an air tube and just pokes the end of this above the surface like a periscope but one of the stars of these stick imitators is the Mantis known as the praying mantis owing to the way he punches in the Crouch with six right legs at various angles the Mantis is anything but easy to see if in a brushy place and he uses the deception to evil purpose he isn't timid or trying to dodge the other fellow and his twig right makeup yes this guy's enemy waiting to take the passerby for a ride here is the only insect that can give you an insolent and intense there that can turn its head that is a Ledge to practically hypnotized its victims a silly grasshopper has no idea of the nature of such a motionless stick like form before it hold chapters and stories have been written about the Mantis which has been called the world's strangest infect unlike other insects it may be fed by human hand without its showing the least fair and it's seen as its prey with the ferocity of a panther here is a grasshopper that intends to dodge trouble in mimicry the rut grasshopper is a mich for the surfaces on which it best and mimicry is a common kind of protection tree-toad mentioned blend to the bark and lichens on which they live not only in color but in texture and modeling of the skin I've almost had my nose on them before I found it and that brings us to the point why some of the fur animals are brown in the summer and white in with it the hair turns white for the first cold weather and sticks close to the early patches of snow among the grapes and rest of the desert you'll find all sorts of little spiky plants and if you are hunting for horned toads which are really desert lizards you look among little patches of cactus plants where the toads are hiding they shuffle the sand over their banks and leave only their spiky head speaking out it's hard to tell which is a toad or a sprouting cactus you take a stick and dig into little mounds of sand or what may appear like small cacti I have dug one out but failed to see another a few inches away until it happens to move its head in keeping an eye on me then again they are hard to see even in the open as they passed Flint into the ground and the hue is the same as that of the digits same he was a pink sort of yellow precisely matching the same there is a kind that has a perfect crown of sharp spines thus the game of make-believe is carried on in the jungle the deserts and in the sea where the masquerade is even more remarkable but let us get right down to the reason for all this imagine a small crab very much out of luck attacked by a 20-pound filefish the rock crab has always worried about these strong-jawed fish he lives in a bad neighborhood there are many dark alleys he had always fitted a dead sponge to his back at Temple sponge with a big dent in it and what fish would think of swallowing his fun but he has grown the fat and the spongy was wearing kept popping off like a head and a breeze and tied currents are like the winds this sponge is a good thing but it's quite a job to jam it over a fellow's bank however it looks like a good fit and thus this guy's he can dare filefish did choke in swallowing such a mouthful isn't that smart they are wiser than you think such enemies as the big pile fish have taught for hermit crab to seek an empty shell Jaime's body within it then carry the defensive armor around with him sort of a walking tank arrangement the outgrows indus guards an old shell then shops around for the one of two empty shells one may be too tight for chest expansion then again another they look better I think I'll take this one ruminates the crab feeling that once he is outfitted with such tough covering he can play around anywhere and duck into the shell if he sees any trouble coming his way under the surface of the very Seas where we sailed our camouflaged ships lives the original camouflage artist the cuttlefish he can go a several points better by being blotched one minute and stripe the next you may remember how we striped our warships like zebras or broke their outlines by big smudges of color that is camouflage the breaking or confusing of marginal lines so an object is difficult to determine the cuttlefish in changing its pattern is astonishing the changes take place right in front of your eyes bunches or stripes coming or going you say the zebra effect seems to be one of his favorite designs it's one of the best to break outlines but they are liable to swing into a pebble pen and amidst the coarse sand at the bottom the combination of camouflage and mimicry whether a keen eye is in the sea and enemy may know the tricks in advance then comes the star play the smokescreen Jets of sepia from special glands he clouds the path of advanced with the inky fluid with a screen laid down the murk spreads and into Datsun zigzags and escape and humans only started to utilize these ancient means a few years back