ATURE, in her imitative moods, seems on occasions actually to become sportive and jocular. For example, how, unless it were meant as a joke, is one to account for the remarkable Taira crab of Japan, which has recently attracted the attention of science?

Japanese tradition tells of a great naval battle which was fought in the Sea of Japan in very early times, many centuries ago. A force of piratical seafighters had assembled to oppose the doughty Japs, but was overwhelmingly defeated, the fleet being entirely wiped

out, with no survivors worth mentioning. Since that day, according to the story, all the crabs of a certain species common on that part of the coast have borne on their backs the face of a Japanese warrior.

The face is there all right. It is in its way, indeed, the most remarkable thing in nature, the visage represented on the back of the crab being not only most. human-like, but unmistakably Oriental. Furthermore, it is the face of a drowned man, with open mouth and greatly swollen features.

The idea popularly accepted in Japan

is that the Taira crab offers good evi-
dence of the transmigration of the souls
of the dead into the bodies of lower ani-
mals. Whether this
notion be accepted or
not, the phenomenon
described is extremely
interesting. It may

be added that the crab
in question is provid-
ed, curiously enough,
with four supplemen-
tary legs on its back,
so that, if accidentally
turned upside down,
it is able to run in that
fashion quite as
well as in its or-
dinary position.
These extra legs
are plainly
shown in the ac-
companying

photograph, at and below the corners of the mouth of the "warrior."

Dr. Bashford Dean, in a recent article of his own on this subject, speaks of the earbone of a whale, picked up on a Norway beach, which shows in a very striking way a human face. Furthermore, it is unmistakably a face of Scandinavian type, of low caste, with rounded cheek bones, flat nose-bridge, small upper lip,

and receding jaw. The resemblance is almost absurd in its accuracy of detail. It might be said, however, that the face looks rather the death mask of a Scandinavian fisherman than that of a living person. The ear-bone in question was that of a finback whale. and doubtless the same part of the osseous anatomy of any other whale of the same species would have substantially the same form. In fact, the accompanying picture was made by the writer from another finback's car-bone at the Smithsonian In

stitution in Washington.

People all over the country are constantly sending curiosities of one kind or another to the Smithsonian, and many of them are what are known to scientists as "pseudomorphs"-that is to say, accidental imitations in nature. For instance, not long ago, somebody forwarded a piece of water-worn rock, which he declared to be a fossil human foot. It was undeniably very like a foot

To

From the weird region known as the Bad Lands arrived, not long ago, what was declared to be a fossil ham. prove that there was no mistake, the bone was actually sticking out of one end of it. But expert examination showed that the so-called bone was in reality the shell of an extinct rod-shaped mollusk known as a "baculite." As for the "meat" surrounding it, that was merely an accidental agglomeration of stony stuff.

Thickly scattered over an area of at least five hundred square miles in Nebraska, chiefly in Sioux County, are the so-called "devil's corkscrews"-otherwise known as "fossil twisters." Some of them are as much as forty feet long. All over that region they may be seen projecting from the sides of cliffs, and in

other places where the rocky formations have been worn away by water and wind -vertical spirals of quartz embedded in sandstone, their symmetry absolutely mathematical. It is difficult to realize that they are works of nature, and not of art.

Until very recently the origin of these "corkscrews" has been an unsolved problem. Many theories were advanced to account for them, one of the most widely accepted ideas being that they were the fossil burrows of a huge extinct species. of gopher. But it has been practically decided that they are petrified waterweeds, which, of enormous size, grew on the bottom of a vast lake which covered Nebraska some millions of years ago. In the course of time they were buried by sediment, which, transformed into rock, has preserved them for the astonishment and instruction of a race of human animals which had not made its first appearance on the earth at the period when they flour

ished.

The most wonderful imitation in the plant kingdom is that presented by the holy ghost or

chid, which contains

QUARRYING OUT A "DEVIL'S CORKSCREW." Note the huge root

within each of its blossoms a pigeon with half-spread wings. Indeed, the bird is so perfect that it looks as if ready to take flight. The plant, which is native to the Isthmus of Panama, is exceedingly rare so much so that there are probably not more than half-a-dozen specimens in the United States, including two in the greenhouses of the White House at Washington. It grows sturdily, but, in order to thrive, has to be kept in a hothouse with the temperature of a Turkish bath.

Another very curious plant, which has been famous since very ancient times, is the "Scythian lamb"-otherwise known. as the "vegetable lamb," or by the Chinese, as the "golden-haired dog." It looks remarkably like an animal, and in early days was popularly supposed to combine in some mysterious way the attributes of animal and plant. The belief was that it sprang from a seed, and turned on its root until it devoured all green food within reach, whereupon it

MOTHS THAT IMITATE THE LEAVES OF TREES.

perished of starvation. As late as the seventeenth century it was much prized as a magical drug in Europe. Truth to tell, however, it is merely the rootstock of a plant, which, densely covered with soft, golden-brown hairs, suggests a likeness to a quadruped.

In New Zealand there is a strange plant known as the "vegetable sheep," by reason of its wool-like foliage. But, when one gets into the vegetable kingdom, one finds no end of curious imitations. Dr. Bashford Dean calls attention to the common garden snapdragon, the seed-pods of which look like diminutive human heads arranged on the stalks like "poles of skulls," such as are set up in certain countries where head-hunting is a popular amusement. These show not merely the head and face, but dried portions of the scalp, eyelids and lips. Their color is like that of mummied heads.

Pansies often have rather striking faces. It is curious to walk around a circular bed of

them, and to observe that, on whichever side one stands, the flowers seem to be looking at one, as if they turned and followed. Here, of

course, the imagination is largely concerned. Much more odd, in their way, are the Oriental written characters which appear on squash seeds after drying. They are mere irregular markings, due to contraction, but it is said that Japanese men of learning have made earnest efforts on occasions to read them and find some meaning in them.

The insect world is full of mimicry. Butterflies that imitate dead leaves are familiar, and the same may be said of

the "walking stick," which bears so close a likeness to a twig that, though common enough in the woods, it is rarely detected and captured. The "measuring worm" assumes the attitude of a twig, and remains motionless for hours together. Moths, to protect themselves against enemies, mimic wasps, and other harmless insects adopt the aspect of spiders.

Native to Africa is a remarkable insect, a species of Spalgis, the chrysalis of which looks like the head of a

chimpanzee. Even the hair and the pupils of the eyes are shown. But more wonderful yet is the chrysalis of a butterfly, Feniseca tarquinius, which is a likeness,