Protective Coloration in its relation to Mimicry, etc. 557 



more easily recognize minute patterns than colour, when 

 we realize that the perfect colour-adaptation of innumerable 

 forms of life, from mammals to larvae, proves that the lower 

 animals sec colour (since otherwise such adaptation would 

 not be necessary for their concealment). In each form of 

 protective coloration there exist cases so pronounced as 

 to leave no doubt of their use. Each of these has been 

 assumed to be mimicked, or, at least, echoed, for some 

 reason, by other species than the one in which it is most 

 perfect. Let us look at the dead-leaf pattern, i. e. the 

 pattern that represents, in the most minute degree, 

 substance of the colour and thichiess of dead leaves, and 

 lying as near the ground as dead leaves usually lie. This 

 pattern is marvellously perfect on the Copperhead snake 

 {TriffonocephalNS contort-riv), on some Boas, on that form 

 of domestic cat which has the most tiger-cat-like black 

 and grey pattern (as well as, in fact, on tiger-cats them- 

 selves), and on several Sphinx moths. Of course, when 

 this leaf-representation occurs on the rotundity of animals' 

 bodies, as in the cats or snakes, it exists only in 

 co-operation with the regular effacive gradation, but on 

 the flat plane of a Sphinx's upper-wing-surface it has 

 and needs no such co-operation. In the Sphinx-moth 

 photograph which I have sent Professor Poulton, this 

 reproduction of thin material casting a shadow on the 

 surface it lies on is past all mistaking. This artifice is 

 present on many moths, and its elements are traceable in 

 such butterfly genera as Vanessa, Grapta, and many 

 others. To know at what point in the long series of 

 somewhat similarly marked species the original function 

 has ceased, would require impossible study. 



While it is plain that a hundred needs may each be 

 represented in the pattern- and colour-schemes of animals, 

 it is also plain to an artist's eye that in most butterflies all 

 visible details of colour, pattern, and form are essential 

 parts of the representation of flower-scenery. And it is 

 surely conceivable that, in a certain region, one particular 

 form of flower-scenery-representation may furnish such 

 advantages to butterflies as to cause many widely-separated 

 species to become modified till they wear a common aspect; 

 and it is conceivable also that there would be one common 

 form of wing which would best lend itself to this scheme. 

 Surely we do not know enough of the habits of these 

 insects or of the regions that may be their strongholds to 



