WARNING COLORATION 15 



pupas, too, choose — or have chosen in their pre-exist- 

 ences — the same situations, especially that of the 

 cinnabar moth, which is extremely common about 

 here. Its luridly-coloured caterpillar — banded with 

 deep black and orange — swarms upon the common 

 flea-bane, which grows something like a scanty crop 

 over much of the sandy soil ; and when about to 

 pupate, as I have noticed with interest, it ascends the 

 trunk of the Scotch fir, and undergoes the change in 

 one of the numerous chinks in its flaky bark. I have 

 seen numbers of these caterpillars thus ascending 

 and concealing themselves, but I do not know 

 from how great a distance they come to the trees. 

 Probably it is only from quite near, for the majority, to 

 get to them, would have to travel farther than can be 

 supposed possible, and, moreover, fir-trees in these 

 parts date, as I said, only from some fifty years 

 back. Doubtless it is mere accident, but when one 

 sees such numbers crawling towards the trees, and 

 ascending as soon as they reach them, it looks as 

 though they were acting under some special 

 impulse, such as that v/hich urges birds to migrate, 

 or sends the lemmings to perish in the sea. These 

 caterpillars, however, as I now bethink me, are 

 nauseous to birds. I have thrown them to fowls 

 who appeared not to see them, so that they off^er, I 

 suppose, an example of warning coloration. If, 

 however, the caterpillar is unpalatable, the chrysalis 

 probably is also, so that it would not be for these 

 that the golden wren, or the coal-tit, its frequent 

 companion, searches the bark in the winter. 



Coal-tits, too, feed much — ne nien parlez point — on 

 the delicate little buds at the ends of the clusters 



