RESEMBLANCES AMONG ANIMALS. 101 



There is, however, in one group of Vertebrata such a 

 general similarity of form, that a very slight modi- 

 fication, if accompanied by identity of colour, would 

 produce the necessary amount of resemblance ; and 

 at the same time there exist a number of species which 

 it would be advantageous for others to resemble, since 

 they are armed with the most fatal weapons of offence. 

 We accordingly find that reptiles furnish us with a 

 very remarkable and instructive case of true mimicry. 



Mimicry among Snakes. 



There are in tropical America a number of venomous 

 snakes of the genus Elaps, which are ornamented with 

 brilliant colours disposed in a peculiar manner. The 

 ground colour is generally bright red, on which are 

 black bands of various widths and sometimes divided 

 into two or three by yellow rings. Now, in the same 

 country are found several genera of harmless snakes, 

 having no affinity whatever with the above, but 

 coloured exactly the same. For example, the poisonous 

 Elaps fulvius often occurs in Guatemala with simple 

 black bands on a coral-red ground ; and in the same 

 country is found the harmless snake Pliocerus equalis, 

 coloured and banded in identically the same manner. 

 A variety of Elaps corallinus has the black bands 

 narrowly bordered with yellow on the same red ground 

 colour, and a harmless snake, Homalocranium semi- 

 cinctum, has exactly the same markings, and both are 

 found in Mexico. The deadly Elaps lemniscatus has 

 the black bands very broad, and each of them divided 



