THE THEORY OF MIMICRY 103 



In all the discussions that have arisen in efforts to ex- 

 plain the causes which have produced the resemblances 

 that occur in nature, and which are so often and wonder- 

 fully illustrated in the wing patterns of buttertlies, 

 psychology as a factor in their production appears to have 

 no supporters. I cannot pretend to any scientific know- 

 ledge of this subject, but we are all aware of the influence 

 of the mind over matter, especially during the time of 

 pregnancy in women, when sometimes it produces unfor- 

 tunate results in the offspring. I also remember read- 

 ing, many years ago, a caution to breeders of fancy poul- 

 try against placing Avhite fowls in breeding pens along- 

 side coloured varieties, as it sometimes results in white 

 feathers being produced in the progeny of the coloured 

 stock — I think Tegetmeir, the great poultry fancier, was 

 the authority for the assertion. Under Sexual Selection 

 the incentive is display, and this is, in the case of butter- 

 flies, markedly developed in the beauty of the wing pat- 

 terns. There are also cases in which abnormal develop- 

 ments are common to both sexes^ to which it is impossible 

 to suggest a meaning under either sexual or natural 

 selection. Is it not within reason that some, at least, of 

 the resemblances in the wing patterns of butterflies, 

 whose affinities are far apart, may be the result of close 

 daily association in the same environment? Is it not pos- 

 sible that the nerve centres, within the limits of their 

 constitutional tendencies (colour and pattern factors in 

 the case of butterflies), may be subject to reactions, which 

 may bring a])out some of tlie mimicral results that are so 

 frequent in nature? The incentives, of course, would be 

 emulation to acquire an adornment already possessed by 

 another species. Its perpetuation, other conditions being 

 equal, would be the mutual preferences shown by tlie 

 sexes to a new and pleasing pattern. 



Whether there may be anything in my suggestion 

 worthy of further enquiry or not, it is meant as an effort 

 to broaden the scope of investigation into these intricate 

 problems of nature, for nothing is so disheartening as 

 the attempts to make square pegs fit into round holes. 



