3iS Papers from the Marine Biological Laboratory at Tortugas. 



(c) Saville-Kent (1893) describes three species of a huge anemone of 

 the genus Discosoma, which occur on the barrier reef of Australia. One of 

 these species " not infrequently measures as much as 2 feet in diameter." 

 In the gastral cavity of each species of these anemones is commonly found 

 a small fish of the genus Amphiprion. The three species of Amphiprioii 

 are all most conspicuously banded with orange-vermilion and white, but 

 they differ in the number of white bands and in the fact that one of them, 

 A. percula, has the white and vermilion bands everywhere separated by nar- 

 rower black bars. Saville-Kent suggests that 



The brilliant colors of the commensal guests attract the notice of other predatory 

 fish, which, hastening to seize an apparently easy prey, are themselves entrapped within 

 the outspread tentacles of the passively expectant sea-anemones. 



(rf) Belt (1874, pp. 196-197) says: 



Three gaudy macaws were wheeling round and round in playful flight, now show- 

 ing all the red on the under surface, then turning all together, as if they were one 

 body, and showing the gorgeous blue, yellow and red of the upper side gleaming in 

 the sunshine ; screaming meanwhile as they flew with harsh, discordant cries. This 

 gaudy-colored and noisy bird seems to proclaim aloud that it fears no foe. Its for 

 midable beak protects it from every danger, for no hawk or predatory mammal dares 

 attack a bird so strongly armed. Here the necessity for concealment does not exist, 

 and sexual selection has had no check in developing the brightest and most conspicu- 

 ous colors. If such a bird was not able to defend itself from all foes, its loud cries 

 would attract them; its bright colors direct them to its own dc^trnction. The white 

 cockatoo of Australia is a similar instance. It is equally conspicuous amongst the 

 dark-green foliage by its pure white color, and equally its loud screams proclaim from 

 afar its resting-place, whilst its powerful beak protects it from all enemies excepting 

 man. In the smaller species of parrots the beak is not sufficiently strong to protect 

 them from their enemies, and most of them are colored green, which makes them 

 very diflicult to distinguish amongst the leaves. I have been looking for several 

 minutes at a tree, in which were scores of small green parrots, making an incessant 

 noise, without being able to distinguish one ; and I recollect once in Australia firing 

 at what I thought was a solitary " green leek " parrot amongst a bunch of leaves, and 

 to my astonishment five " green leeks " fell to the ground, the whole bunch of appa- 

 rent leaves having been composed of them. 



Newton (1893-1896) says of the macaw, of which there are about a 

 score of species : " Their food . . . consists of various kinds of fruit . . . 

 The sexes appear in all cases to be alike in colouring." We can, then, 

 hardly attribute their colors to sexual selection. The food precludes aggres- 

 sive resemblance. Belt's account makes it clear that we are not dealing 

 with protective resemblance. Leunis (1883) says of the Psittaci: "Das 

 Fleisch vieler arten gilt fiir zart und wohl-schmeckend," so that warning 

 coloration on this score seems to be also precluded. 



((?) Brown (1903, page 297, footnote), writing of the garter snakes of 

 the moist region from latitude 40 in northern California to British Colum- 

 bia, says: 



