1904.] PACKARD— ORIGIX OF MARKINGS OF ORGANISMS. 415 



The beautiful plates illustrating the injuries to the 'wings of 

 various butterflies attributed to the bites of birds, lizards, etc., are 

 of much interest, though even if it were proved that the mutilations 

 were actually due to the attempts of such vertebrates to seize the 

 insects, rather than to their being battered and torn by wind or 

 rain, they scarcely form a body of evidence proving that butterflies 

 constitute an important article of food for birds, but rather that 

 they are only stray tid-bits; much less does the evidence seem to 

 us sufficient to afford a foundation for a theory of the origination of 

 species. 



Thus of the twenty-five figures on PI. IX, it is stated that ten of 

 the figures represent mutilations attributed to the bites of lizards, 

 and one to the attacks of a mantis. Of the thirty-three figures on 

 PI. X eleven are referred to the attacks of birds, six to those of 

 lizards, while the others are not explained. Of the twenty- four 

 figures on PL XI thirteen are referred to the bites of birds, one to 

 the attempt on the part of a lizard and two to injury by a possible 

 mantis. 



Mr. Mansel Weale^ mentions seeing in Brooklyn, Kaff"raria, 

 Tchitrea cristata darting at P. agathina ; '* Cypselus caffer I have 

 seen take small moths from the grass, and dart at Terias rahel on 

 our open flats; Motacilla capensis I have seen take moths and 

 P. hellica ; Dururus musicus is a voracious bird amongst insects, 

 and takes moths, though I cannot state I have seen it capture 

 Rhopalocera, yet I think it also attacks Pieridae." 



7. The Bates-Muller Theories. 



The theory of protective coloration, i.e., that animals of many 

 groups are protected from observation by their color, is generally 

 accepted, though there is a difference of opinion as to the active 

 cause of the adaptation, or harmony, /.<?., whether it is the result of 

 the physical agency of light and shade, with or without moisture, or 

 is due to natural selection. 



The Batesian theory. — Mr. Bates^ first states that the majority of 

 the species of Heliconidae have very limited ranges. " I was sur- 

 prised,'* he says, "when traveling on the upper Amazons from east 

 to west, to find the greater part of the species of Ithomia^ changed 



1 Nature^ HI, p. 508. 



2 Trans. Linn. Soc. London, xxiii, 1862, pp. 495-566. 



