. Little folks in feathers and fur, and others in neither. , hell dress himself in IN FEATHERS AND FUR. 143 the first thing that presents, either silk or paper. He isnt partic-ular, if its only a good thick coat. You know how men will run away from a helpless little animalno bigger than your kitten, called a skunk, because of an unpleas-ant fashion he has of emptying perfume bags on them. Well, verylittle insects also have scent bags probably quite as offensive totheir enemies. Some beautiful lace-winged flies smell so horriblythat even naturalists, who handle bugs and spiders every day, hatet
. Little folks in feathers and fur, and others in neither. , hell dress himself in IN FEATHERS AND FUR. 143 the first thing that presents, either silk or paper. He isnt partic-ular, if its only a good thick coat. You know how men will run away from a helpless little animalno bigger than your kitten, called a skunk, because of an unpleas-ant fashion he has of emptying perfume bags on them. Well, verylittle insects also have scent bags probably quite as offensive totheir enemies. Some beautiful lace-winged flies smell so horriblythat even naturalists, who handle bugs and spiders every day, hateto touch them. There are a great many insects who are not warriors, and whodont hide, and have no scent bags to shoot at one. Dont thinkthey are defenseless, however; the very tiniest of them has someway to take care of himself. Many protect themselves by taking some peculiar positionthat makes them look like a stick or stone. One Caterpillar, who lives on trees, if disturbed, will hold onwith his two hind legs, and stick up the rest of his body in such a. way that he looks exactly like a little twig. Here is a picture ofhim. One gardener that I read of, attempted to pick off what hethought was a dead twig, but his Caterpillarship having no desire to 144 LITTLE FOLKS be picked off, came to life in the gardeners hand, and frightenedhim so that he dropped it in horror. One little Beetle will stiffen out as if dead, his legs as stiff asiron wire. He thus escapes being eaten by a bird, who dont eatdead bugs. These bugs and spiders, who pretend to be dead, orplay possum, will keep up the play till the last breath. Theymay be torn to pieces, limb by limb, or burned by a slow fire, butnot a sign or a quiver will they give. Poor little things ! they seemto know that it is their only hope of escape. One little creature, when frightened, rolls himself into a happens to make a very pretty ball, for he is black and shiny,and has white stripes. I read a story of a girl wrho was once
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookpublishe, booksubjectzoology
