( xxxvi }) 
sent to their ultimate destination, the British Museum, 
arose, the possibility of their being kept permanently to- 
gether might be considered, and their retention in the present 
arrangement stipulated for, The absence of any rare or 
unique examples from their proper places in the collection 
would be more than compensated for by the increased interest 
which would thus be secured, and the series would serve as 
a model to curators of other museums in the art of making 
butterfly collections interesting and instructive. 
He had to speak that evening without the advantage of 
having heard the first part of the discussion, and what he 
had to say was therefore based mainly on the abstract which 
had been furnished of it. He thought, and his opinion was 
formed on personal experience gained in collecting in many 
countries, tropical and otherwise, that there was too much 
assumption about either the Batesian or Miillerian theories 
of mimicry. In many supposed cases he doubted whether 
the so-called models were protected either by taste or smell, 
and he thought that the importance of birds as enemies of 
butterflies had been overrated. It seemed to him that the 
protection supposed to be given to the imago was of little 
account in the perpetuation of the species when compared 
with the destruction which took place in the larval or pupal 
stage by climatic influence, as well as by insect and other 
enemies. 
However beautiful these explanations of the phenomena of 
mimicry were in theory they ought not in most cases to be 
treated as proved scientific axioms. He did not deny that 
there might be some truth in each of the theories which had 
been put forward, but it appeared to him that altogether too 
much stress was laid on them. Had any observations been 
made which would justify the statement that the members of 
a Miillerian group were inedible, as was asserted by Dr. Dixey 
in his quoted remarks ? 
He desired to call attention again to a passage in his 
Presidential Address on Geographical Distribution (Trans, 
Ent. Soc. Lond., 1894, pp. Ixv., lxvi.). He -had said: 
‘* What is most remarkable is the existence, at high eleva- 
tions in yarious parts of the Andes, and at sea level in South 
