Of the methods NATURE has furnished various ANIMALS withal, to elude the attacks of, and prevent pursuits from, their enemies.
IN our last Number we gave some account of a remarkable artifice, made use of by a very small animal, to entrap and get into his power such creatures as are his proper prey; and which, by being provided either with wings, or with a superior share of agility, would be otherwise out of the reach of his attacks. Were we to proceed in relating the various contrivances peculiar to each several species of animals for the discovering, ensnaring, and overcoming their respective enemies, or catching their destined prey, we should greatly encroach on the limits of the plan we have determined to proceed on, of not dwelling too long on any one subject. Various, therefore as they are, and entertaining and curious as the knowledge of them may be, we shall refer an account of them to some future periods, in which they may, perhaps, find place with a greater degree of variety; and proceed in this to relate the opposite gift of nature, who, provident and careful of all her works, has, together with every convenience for the procuring of sustenance, and for the attacking of those enemies which stand in some rank of equality, also furnished almost every creature with the means of either eluding the search, or escaping from the seizure of such as are more powerful.
Some of these methods are general, others particular. The more general means by which different animals elude the search of their powerful and destructive enemies, are the several cells, caverns, nests, and covertures, which nature has taught the different genera of them to find out, and to repair to for shelter, as well against their destroyers, as against the several inclemencies and dangers of the weather. The general assistances which they meet with for escaping from imminent danger, when attacked, is some peculiar degree of agility, either in running, leaping, flying, or swimming; for which several purposes certain classes of animals are found to be furnished with a particular apparatus and mechanism, such as most justly demand our admiration, and bear the strongest testimony to Almighty wisdom. Yet these are still properties in common to numbers, even of different species, bearing only some trivial differences peculiar to individuals; but there are other methods, in which the Creator has thought proper to distinguish his care for the preservation of his creatures, and which are some of them limited to particular genera of animals, and others absolutely confined to separate individuals.
Of this sort, there is none that we find more frequent than the being endowed with a property of assuming, either in colour or form, the general appearance of surrounding objects, in such manner, that being blended and confused with them, a distant eye is rendered incapable of discerning them: and this property we ever find more or less bestowed on those creatures whose natural manner of living obliges them to range abroad for their food in places devoid of shelter; and therefore become the more continually exposed to the attacks of their adversaries.
Thus do we find in Greenland, Nova Zembla, and the colder countries within the polar circles, that in the winter season, when the whole region is covered with indissoluble snow, the hares, rabbits, foxes, &c. who, by that means are deprived of their accustomed shelter, and would therefore become an easy prey to the larger animals, change the dark colours, which their summer coats are stained with, into a snowy whiteness; whereby they not only are undiscoverable at any considerable distance, even though lying on the open ground, but also, if by chance they should be seen, their natural swiftness cannot but perfectly avail them in their flight, over large plains, in which, from the resemblance of their own colour with that of the surrounding country, their figure is very quickly as much lost therein, as a drop of water falling into the vast expanse of ocean.
Animals of the serpent, frog, and lizard kind, whose residence is ever amongst grass, corn, and herbage, have for the most part the basis of their cloathing of a green colour. When they are spotted or striped, the generality of those marks are either formed with yellow, which is the next most universal colour in nature, especially amongst the field flowers, or else with various shades of brown, approaching to the representation of earth, and of the roots and barks of trees. By this means they easily elude the sight and search of the birds and other animals, which would otherwise destroy them in great quantities, unarmed as they are, and incapable of defending themselves when attacked.
The so much admired cameleon, whose food being small insects, which are borne about in the summer air, not the air itself, as it was formerly imagined, renders it necessary that he should ever remain in places unsheltered and open to every view, is endued with a power of assuming the colour of whatever he happens to lie upon. But here let us not lead our fair readers into the vulgar error of imagining he is able to change the colour from one to another, any more than in appearance. In short, what little tinct he really has, which is, indeed very little, is like others of the lizard class, greenish, and consequently not much different from that of the objects amongst which he has the most frequent necessity to take up his station; but besides this, the great transparency of his body, through which the colour of whatever he happens to lie upon, is easily discernible, is the greatest security he has; and by making it almost impossible for him to be distinguished, has given rise to the opinion, that he assumes a colour, which, in reality, he only suffers to be seen.
Caterpillars, also, which are the natural food of many kinds of birds, are for the most part found to partake of the colours of those plants which they feed on and inhabit. Nay, there is one particular class of them, well known to the fly-fancier by the name of Loopers, which fixing themselves to the barks of certain branches of trees, and stretching out their bodies therefrom perfectly strait, and in a certain oblique direction, assume so exactly in their colour, form, and rugged contexture, the appearance of the natural sprigs of those branches, that a very discerning eye may look attentively on a branch where hundreds of them are affixed, and if uninformed of their property, may chance not to discover one.
There is an insect, however, very frequent in the West Indies, which is still more extraordinarily sheltered under a feigned appearance. He is of the locust, or rather of the mantis kind. His body is long, slender, and knobbed; of a brown colour, and therefore bears a very near resemblance to a broken sprig of wood: but besides this, he has two very large and long wings, which are so formed both as to shape, colour, and markings, that they exactly represent two dried leaves in the fall of autumn, embrowned by the heat of the sun, withered up, and curled about the edges; and, from an intire deficiency of all juices and moisture, every minutest ramification of the fibrous texture, rendered distinctly visible. It is called the Walking Leaf, a name that indeed most truly expresses its figure, which is so amazingly like an outcast of the season, that excepting when he moves, he can never attract the notice of any eye whatsoever.
This kind of protection from a resemblance to external objects, extends even so far as into the earth and water. Worms, grubs, and other insects, whose habitation is under ground, yet are liable to be frequently disturbed by the plough or spade, and brought to the view of their destroyers, are for the most part found to be of a colour nearly resembling the clods of earth amongst which they lie less discernible than they would be, were they of a red, blue, green, or any other bright colour, which would form a more apparent contrast to the surrounding glebe. Many of the animals whose first state of life is in the waters, and who would therefore be a ready prey to the fishes who inhabit them, are taught by the universal mistress nature a means of forming to themselves a crustaceous covering, which so nearly resembles the small sprigs, pieces of dead bark, straws, &c. that are every where to be found at the bottom of brooks and rivers, that they lie secure and unnoticed by those animals, who would be tempted by a figure more resembling life, to seize on and devour them. Nay, even the fish themselves frequently partake so much of the colours of the mosses, herbage, &c. amongst which they harbour, that they are not easily to be distinguished, excepting when in motion.
Such are the means wherewith kind Providence has furnished different creatures to elude almost the strictest search, and thereby to avoid the being attacked. Yet, as for the wisest purposes, the whole animal kingdom seems in one perpetual state of warfare within itself, it was also necessary, that certain means of escape should be provided to have recourse to, in case the methods of prevention should prove ineffectual. Of these, every animal is more or less instructed, and endued with powers for relieving itself, even in the height of the most imminent danger, and when almost in the jaws of its most rapacious enemy.
Of these, some are by very swift and sudden flight; some by the help of a peculiar springiness of limbs, which in high, and unexpected leaps, conveys them instantly out of the reach, or at least out of the ken of their adversary. Others, as the mole, the ferret, the grillotalpa, &c. by an expert rapidity in digging into the bowels of the earth, and at the same time closing up the passage, thro’ which they have forced their way: whilst others, lastly, find means to escape, by taking refuge in an element, whereinto their adversaries dare not, or cannot follow them, which is the case with the whole race of amphibious animals.
Some kinds of creatures there are, especially amongst the insect tribe, who, having neither strength to resist, nor agility to fly, deceive their enemies by assuming the appearance of death. To this stratagem, many of the smaller species of the beetle, or scarabeus class, have immediate resource on the least approach of danger, as any one may easily be convinced, by touching them with a stick, or taking them into the hand; when they instantly turn on their backs, contract all their limbs together,and lie for a time under the appearance of a little inanimate grain, which they do not shake off, till by the stillness of every thing round them, they are persuaded they can run no risk by reassuming the signs of life; which they do with as much caution and gradual deliberation, as they put on the image of death with presence of mind and ready precipitation.
Many other devices of somewhat a similar nature, are made use of by various creatures, for the purposes above-mentioned; the minutiae of which it would be too tedious here to enter into. But I think we cannot with any propriety close this article, without taking notice of two animals, which possess qualities so eminently singular for repelling and stopping the career of their pursuers, that it is rather more wonderful that they should ever be taken at all, than that the knowledge of them and their properties should be so little known, as in general they are.
The first of these that I shall mention, is the calamary, or ink fish. This animal, whose singularity of figure has induced me to make it the subject of the copper-plate annexed to this number, is found in great abundance on the coast of the warmer parts of Europe. He is of the polypus class, and frequently lies on the surface of the water, with the arms which are represented in the figure spread out for the catching of such fish as may happen to come in his way, and which by the means of numberless suckers of a most curious mechanism that are arranged along the arms, are not only secured from escaping him, if once they come within his touch, but are also impoisoned by it in such a manner, that if they by dint of struggling, should force themselves from his hold, they would die almost immediately. Thus arm’d, therefore, and provided for attack, he frequently seizes a fish much larger than himself, whose juices he sates himself with, abandoning the remainder to the waves.
There are, however, some kinds of fish to whom he in his turn is a proper prey; whose bulk is too much for him to attack, and their activity too great to fly from. For his security then, from these powerful enemies, he is furnished with two advantageous properties; the first is a very clear and extensive sight, from a pair of large globular and projecting eyes, which are so placed as to command all objects that can advance from any part round him; the second, and that which is more immediately peculiar to himself, is a certain black fluid, which on the approach of an enemy he ejects from his body in large quantities, and which muddying the water for a very considerable space round him, not only conceals the spot of his immediate residence, but also deters his antagonist from pursuing him. So careful has nature been for the preservation of every one of her creatures however inconsiderable or apparently useless!
The other instance of providential care, wherewith I shall at present close this department of philosophy, is that of the torpedo, or cramp-fish, a creature which tho’ a very slow swimmer, and in its construction divested of all means of preventing or avoiding any attack made on it; yet is furnished with a method of rendering such attacks fruitless, and, as it were by a stroke of magic, reducing its enemy to a state of inactivity and impotence. In short, the skin of this animal is formed of a texture so elastic and powerful, that on the very slightest touch of it, even with the end of a stick, it numbs and destroys the sense of feeling in the same manner as a fit of the cramp would do, enervating the whole frame, and producing such an effect as would, was the fact not so well known, appear incredible. What then must be the consequence to any animal who should eagerly seize on it, with a design of making it his prey? What, but a total deprivation of all sense, for at least time sufficient to enable the destined victim to make his escape, and save himself from the threatening jaws of destruction!
These are some few, among numberless instances, of the infinite wisdom of the great first cause in his works of creation, who has thus contrived it so, that although it is necessary the different species of animals should mutually prey on one another, and that each should find himself surrounded with a host of professed as well as insidious enemies, yet that every kind should be supplied, and that with a variety of invention which nothing less than infinite wisdom could form, with the methods for preventing its race from utter extirpation, and preserving the just and proper balance which the use and the conveniency of man, and often some hidden cause beyond the comprehension of his understanding, require to be maintained amongst the greater and the smaller wheels of this great machine the universe.
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