17 



author to produce crushing evidence from the writings of agricul- 

 tural experts of the last century in support of Mr. Roach Smith's 

 view ((•»■(/<' " Transactions of the South-East Union of Scientific 

 Societies," 1898, and Mr. W. T. Vincent (President), Proceetlinns 

 Woolicich District Antiquarian Society, 1898, with which Mr. 

 T. V. Holmes's paper in the GenUujical Maijaziin', October, 1898, 

 may be compared). 



The writer's paper was accompanied by accuraU diagrams, 

 as a comparison with the original excavations has shown. 

 The chalk workings, described by Mr. F. J. Bennett, appended 

 to the Essex Denehold Report (Essex Field Club), must 

 not be taken as being at all typical of the general form of 

 "Bell-pits" or "Dene holes." The truth is that variation in 

 form, depth, and size, apart from general design, has little to do 

 with the question, and arise from the differences of soil, custom 

 of working, and the age of these excavations. 



THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10th, 1898. 



f rotectton in Jlattia, 



BY 



Colonel C. SWINHOE. M.A., F.L.S. 



COLONEL SWINHOE explained his object as being the giving 

 of a few notes collected from various authors and from per- 

 sonal investigations, rather than the reading of a strictly scientific 

 paper. In so doing he aimed at getting people to make obser- 

 vations on a subject in which many further investigations are 

 necessary and in which those who take it up will find a never- 

 failing interest. 



His interpretation of the phrase " protection in Nature " 

 was the protection brought about in the course of ages through 

 natural selection for the benefit and preservation of living 

 creatures, and his intention was to show examples of protective 

 resemblance, aggressive resemblance, and mimicry. 



" Any observer of Nature," he said, " must often be struck 

 with the fact of the extraordinary resemblance many animals 

 bear to their surroundings. Wherever we go we find the insects 



