41 
The Lecturer next dealt with the colouration of butterflies and 
moths, and their devices for escaping their natural enemies. 
He showed an interesting series of slides illustrating their colour 
and habitat. The leaf insect resembled in shape and colour, the 
leaf on which it fed, others resembled flowers, and birds 
themselves were so marked as to closely resemble their sur- 
roundings. It was so with the hare and the rabbit. The 
Australian sea horse resembled the seaweed. Colour may not 
only save the animal from prey, but may attract its prey, hence 
they had “alluring colouration.” There were well-known cases 
of alluring among our own coasts, the angler, which stirred 
up the mud, and when the other fishes went to the spot they 
were taken in by the angler’s capacious mouth. The deception 
was increased by tufts resembling sea weed among the jaws. 
Some of the deep sea fishes had a similar way of attracting their 
food, and as the depths of the sea were dark they had a phos- 
phorescent organ giving out a pole of light. The tree frogs were 
green so long as they were on the green leaves, but if they 
hopped about on the brown road they became brown in colour. 
The chameleon had a wide range of tints, and could by a 
mechanism through the eye, change its colour. The shrimps 
became practically the colour of the weed on which they were 
living. The red sea-weed animals became red and the change in 
colour was brought about through the eye. A severe struggle 
for existence, and constant variations were taking place 
in animals. These delicate adjustments are the results of 
processes which had been going on for ages, and we now see the 
successes. The failures had disappeared long ago having gone 
under in the struggle for existence. The need for protection was 
most usually met by some modification of colour. We may be 
sure that those insects which acquired a certain greenish colour 
which harmonised with their environment would secure protection, 
and that those who did not acquire that tint would be attacked 
and killed off. Those best protected would survive. Environment 
was a powerful factor—one might say an all-powerful factor—in 
producing changes in the form and colour of animals. If that 
was so, is it not also certain that we ourselves are profoundly 
affected by the nature of our surroundings? Certainly we are, 
and therefore it behoves us to see that we all live under circum- 
stances in which as much as possible of the brightness of life 
could be seen. 
The Lecturer had also a series of slides illustrating the warning 
colours in animals, and made special reference to the skunk, with 
his nauseous artillery, and the cobra, which had three means of 
defence :—(1) its attractive colouration enabling it to hide among 
the leaves, (2) its warning colours, and (3) its poison, of which 
it had only a limited amount at one time. Mimicry in nature 
