nown as the
blowing viper, or puff adder, is one of the most amusing
representatives of the tendency to "play dead" that could well be
found. If you strike him the faintest blow with the lightest stick, he
at once goes into apparent convulsions, in which he seems to suffer
the greatest agony. Then, throwing himself upon his back, he, to all
appearances, yields up the ghost. If, however, you retire but a slight
distance and keep your eye upon him, you find that his ghost returns
after a comparatively short absence, and he slinks away out of danger.
This is the most effective exhibition of this kind with which I am
acquainted.

As for the habit of "playing 'possum" on the part of our opossum, the
trick would seem to be particularly inane. The truth of the matter is,
what is attributed to an unusual brilliancy on the part of the
creature is positively unusual witlessness. The animal has an
exceedingly small brain, as compared with that of a dog of similar
size, and to anyone who knows brains at all this particular organ
would not be looked upon as furnishing its owner much ability. The
fact is that the opossum has exceedingly small wit, and this little
deserts it in an emergency, as a result of which he grows helpless and
motionless. This is often supposed to indicate great wisdom. There may
be wisdom in it, but it is the wisdom that lies back of all nature. It
certainly is not the wisdom of the opossum.

Man himself possesses to a marked degree this impulse to keep quiet in
danger. The man from the country who is visiting the large city,
suddenly startled by the "honk" of the auto horn, finds his power of
movement promptly arrested, and he is not unlikely to be struck and
injured by the machine from which the city dweller would easily
escape. This is not particularly to the credit of the city dweller,
who, when in the country, may find himself similarly startled by the
sudden appearance of the calf, the pig, or the sheep. The bull, which
a country boy, accustomed to him from childhood, will drive with a
willow switch, is a source of terrified concern to the city man.

While the trick of keeping quiet serves many an animal in time of
danger, there is another device for escaping attention, far more
common and widespread throughout the animal world. The eye does not
easily see an object if it is colored like the background against
which it stands. A host of animals find their main safety in being
indistinguishable in col