Holiday Journal

Walking Leaves of Australia.

Almost everybody has heard of the walking leaves of Australia. For a long time after the discovery of that island many people really believed that the leaves of a certain tree which flourished there could walk about the ground. The story arose in this way:

Some English sailors landed upon the coast one day; after roaming about till they were tired, they sat down under a tree to rest themselves. A puff of wind came along, and blew off a shower of leaves, which, after turning over and over in the air, as leaves generally do, finally rested upon the ground. As it was midsummer and everything appeared quite green, the circumstance puzzled the sailors considerably. But the surprise was much greater, as you may well suppose, when, after a short time, they saw the leaves crawling along on the ground toward the trunk of the tree. They ran at once for their vessel, without stopping to examine into the matter at all, and set sail away from the land where every thing seemed to be bewitched. One of the men said that he "expected every moment to see the trees set to and dance a jig." Subsequent explorations of Australia have taught us that these walking leaves are insects. They live upon the trees. Their bodies are very thin and flat, their wings forming large leaf-like organs. When they are disturbed, their legs are folded away under their bodies, leaving the shape exactly like a leaf with its stem and all complete. They are of a bright green color in the summer, but they gradually change in the fall, with the leaves, to the brown of frost-bitten vegetation.

When shaken from the trees, they lie for a few minutes upon the ground, as though they were dead, but presently they begin to crawl along toward the tree, which they ascend again. They rarely use their wings, although they are well supplied in this respect.