COLORS AND MARKINGS OF ANIMALS 



447 



The common large red-brown monarch, or milkweed butter- 

 fly (fig. 233), is a conspicuous object whether in flight or 

 alighted on some flower or branch. But the birds do not 

 attack it; and for the reason that it contains, as has been 

 proved, an ill-tasting fluid which makes it a very disagree- 

 able mouthful for them. Now it is apparently so brightly 



FIG. 233. The monarch butterfly, Anosia plexippus (above), distasteful 

 to birds, and the viceroy, Basilarchia archippus (below), which mimics 

 it. (Natural size.) 



colored that the birds generally recognize it before actually 

 nipping it, and thus it often escapes with its life for to 

 be nipped is death to a butterfly. Other conspicuously 

 marked butterflies and insects and some other forms, in 

 particular a famous little blue and red frog of Nicaragua, 

 are thought to be so marked for a similar reason. They are 

 easily recognized as animals having a bad taste and so are 



