2G0 COLOR PREFERENCES 



color generally in the animal kingdom, with the 

 heightened colors that we find in the tropics, with 

 other features of the geographical distribution of 

 colors, and with that biological distribution through- 

 out great groups in the animal series. Some col- 

 ors may therefore be looked upon as of great an- 

 tiquity. The prevalence of yellow and orange in 

 the Rhodocerini, of white in the Pierini, of white 

 and green and orange in the Anthocharini, of coe- 

 rulean blue in the Lycaeninae, of silver spots in 

 the Argynnini, of browns in the Satyrinae, and of 

 other colors in other groups, all indicate that these 

 colors have in each instance held control during all 

 the changes which have followed the development 

 of these types from a common ancestry. 



A very large proportion of the colors and pat- 

 terns upon the wings of ^ butterflies, far larger, I 

 believe, than is generally conceded, must be looked 

 upon as protective and to have originated in the 

 simplest possible manner through natural selection. 

 Surely if the wonderful mimetic changes we have 

 before recorded have been brought about through 

 natural selection, and that, too, in comparatively 

 recent time, we must allow its power to accomplish 

 very much in the modification and distribution of 

 pattern. It seems in any event probable that we 



