COLORATION 35 



of which there are many, stand the Coral-snakes, 

 Elaps, of America, mostly annulate with red, yellow 

 or white, and black. This striking coloration obtains 

 also in diverse harmless snakes inhabiting the same 

 part of the world, and this coincidence has been 

 adduced in favour of the theory of mimicry, corre- 

 lated with that of natural selection, which accounts 

 for the resemblance as being of advantage to a 

 harmless species, which is thus mistaken for one 

 notorious for its deadly poison, and advertised as 

 such by its brilliant colours (warning coloration). 

 But other poisonous and much more dangerous 

 snakes are not, as a rule, endowed with brilliant 

 colours. It is true that these also may have their 

 mimics : the Krait, Bungarus cceruleus, and Lycodon 

 aulicus, in India, the Pit-viper, Ancistrodon hima- 

 layanus, and Psammodynastes pulverulentus, in the 

 Himalayas and Assam, are good examples of such 

 cases. On the other hand, there are equally striking 

 instances of what one would regard as mimics if 

 they only occurred together; thus, there is no better 

 case of general resemblance between a poisonous 

 and a harmless snake than we find in the Indian 

 Cobra and the Coluber corah of tropical America, 

 where Cobras are absent, or between a Viper and 

 the Boid Enygrus asper, from New Guinea, where 

 no Vipers exist. 



Without attempting to offer any suggestion to 

 account for the similarity of markings which prevails 



