of, the colours of their bodies, in order to seize their unwary prey;
and for the same purpose crocodiles imitating a rotting log; the green
tint of the lizard's skin for the sake of concealment; the playful
imitativeness of the mocking bird; the hysterical laugh of the hyaena;
the gaudy colours of tropical snakes imitated by others, besides many
other examples of Mimicry, in such as butterflies of the species
_Danaidae_ and _Acraediae_, the _Heliconidiae_ of tropical America; and
hornets, wasps, ants, and bees. All this, it may be urged, is only
instinct. True; but is it not also Mimicry--the Pantomime of Nature,
and, though, of course, of a different kind, and for very different
objects, is, nevertheless, of a kind of instinctive Pantomime or Mimicry
which each and every one of us possesses in greater or lesser degrees,
and as much as we do the Dramatic instinct.

The very name Pantomime itself signifies Nature as Pan was amongst the
Ancients, the allegorical god of Nature, the shepherd of Arcadia, and
with _Mimos_, meaning an imitator, we have, in the combination of these
two words, "an imitator of Nature," and from whence we derive the origin
of our word Pantomime.

Dryden says:--

"Pan taught to join with wax unequal reeds;
Pan loves the shepherds and the flocks he feeds."

"Pan," says Servius, "is a rustic god, formed in similitude of Nature,
whence he is called Pan, _i.e._, All: for he has horns in similitude of
the rays of the sun and the horns of the moon; his face is as ruddy as
the imitation of the aether; he has a spotted fawn skin on his breast in
likeness of the stars; his lower parts are shaggy on account of the