The Human Side of Animals | Page 8

the
dangerous one which he oftentimes imitates; or to aid the unprotected
animal in escaping unnoticed among the surroundings he may simulate.

A splendid example of pure bluff is shown in the case of the harmless
Australian lizard, known scientifically under the name of
chlamydosaurus kingii. When he is undisturbed he seems perfectly
inoffensive, but when he becomes angry, he becomes a veritable
fiend-like reptile. In this condition he stands up on his hind legs, opens
his gaping mouth, showing the most terrible teeth, which, by the way,
have never been known to bite anything. Besides this forbidding
display he further adds to his terrible appearance by raising the most
extraordinary frill which is exquisitely decorated in grey, yellow,
scarlet, and blue. This he uses like an umbrella, and if in this way he
does not succeed in frightening away his enemy, he rushes at him, and
lashes him with his saw-like tail. Even dogs are terrified at such
camouflage and leave the successful bluffer alone.
In all parts of the tropics are tree-snakes that lie concealed among the
boughs and shrubs. Most of them are green, and some have richly
coloured bands around their bodies which look not unlike gaily
coloured flowers, and which, no doubt, attract flower-seeking insects
and birds. Among these may be mentioned the deadly-poisonous
snakes of the genus elaps of South America. They are so brilliantly
provided with bright red and black bands trimmed with yellow rings
that it is not uncommon for a plant collector to attempt to pick them up
for rare orchids!
Wherever these snakes are found, are also found a number of perfectly
harmless snakes, absolutely unlike the dangerous ones in habit and life,
yet coloured precisely the same. The elaps fulvius, for example, a
deadly venomous snake of Guatemala, has a body trimmed in simple
black bands on a coral-red ground, and in the same country and always
with him is found a quite harmless snake, which is coloured and
banded in the same identical manner. The terrible and much-feared
elaps lemnicatus has the peculiar black bands divided into divisions of
three by narrow yellow rings, thus exactly mimicking a harmless snake,
the pliocerus elapoides, both of which live in Mexico. Presumably, the
deadly variety assumes the colouring of the harmless kind in order to
deceive intended victims as to his ferocity.

Surely this is sufficient evidence that colouration and pattern-design is
a useful camouflage device of the great struggle for existence. And it is
safe to assert that any animal that has enemies and still does not resort
to protective colouration or mimicry in some form is entirely able to
protect itself either by its size, strength, ferocity, or by resorting to
safety in numbers. Elephants and rhinoceroses, for example, are too
powerful to be molested when grown, except in the rarest cases, and are
furthermore thoroughly capable of protecting their young.
Hippopotamuses are protected by their immense heads, and are capable
of defending their young from crocodiles even when in the water.
The bison and buffalo, which were once so powerful on the plains of
North America, were protected by their gregarious habits, which
terrorised their enemies--the wolves. Their nurseries were a feature of
their wisdom. These were circular pens where the tall grass was
tramped down by expectant mothers for the protection of their young.
This natural nursery was protected from the inside by sentinels who
went round and round the pen constantly guarding the young not only
from the attack of wolves but also from venturing forth alone too early
into the open unprotected plains. In a similar way the snow-pens of the
moose of the Far North serve to protect them from the hungry hordes of
wolves of which they live in constant danger. This indicates that the
annihilation of the bison and buffalo was due, not to lack of wisdom,
but to man's inhumanity; for, taking advantage of their nurseries, the
men crouched near and concealing themselves in the grass killed not
only the mothers for food but even the young in their savage sport.
The large majority of monkeys are protectively coloured with some
shade of brown or grey, with specially marked faces. Entire packs of
Ceylonese species will, at the slightest alarm, become invisible by
crouching on a palm-tree. One of the most strikingly coloured African
monkeys is jet black with a white bushy tail, and a face surrounded by
a white ring, or mantle of long silky hair. He thus simulates so
strikingly the hanging white lichens upon the trees that he is rarely seen
by his enemies.
A book might be written upon the various ways that animals, when

closely associated with other animals or human beings, imitate them.
Darwin says that "two species of wolves, which had been reared by
dogs, learned