( Uxxyi )) 
Professor Meldola not only brought forward and supported, 
with all his wonted grasp and acumen, F, Miiller’s daring 
interpretation of this phenomenon, but in 1882,* in a paper 
discussing the objections brought against Miiller’s view, made 
a distinct advance by showing how that view could justly be 
extended to explain the characteristic and peculiar prevalence 
of one type of colouring and marking throughout large num- 
bers of species in protected groups—so especially noticeable 
in the subfamilies Danaine, Heliconiine, and Acreine. 
In 1887 was published} Professor Poulton’s most interest- 
ing memoir entitled ‘‘ The Experimental Proof of the Pro- 
tective Value of Colours and Markings in Insects in reference 
to their Vertebrate Enemies,’’ which dealt in great detail 
with the actual results of numerous experiments conducted 
by himself and other naturalists with the object of ascertain- 
ing to what extent highly conspicuous (almost always dis- 
tasteful) larvee and perfect insects are rejected or eaten by 
birds, lizards, and frogs. The conclusions given at the close 
of this paper (pp. 266-267) cover a wide range in connection 
with the subject of warning coloration, and among them 
I would call special attention to No. 5, in which the author 
points out that ‘‘ In the various species in which a conspicuous 
‘* appearance is produced by colour and marking, the same 
‘“* colours and patterns appear again and again repeated,” and 
adds that ‘‘In this way the vertebrate enemies are only 
‘“‘compelled to learn a few types of appearance, and the 
‘* types themselves are of a kind which such enemies most 
‘‘ easily learn.”’ This generalisation certainly had the merit 
of first detecting a great additional advantage derivable from 
the common aspect exhibited by a number of protected forms 
in the extended ‘ Miillerian’”’ associations indicated by 
Prof. Meldola; and it was applied by Wallace to the case 
of the Heliconide in the comprehensive survey of warning 
coloration and mimicry generally given in ‘ Darwinism” 
(Ch. IX., pp. 282-267, 1889). We are further indebted to 
Prof. Poulton for the discussion and summary of all extant 
data up to 1890 in his ‘Colours of Animals,’’ a work 
* Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (5), x., pp. 417-425. 
+ Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1887, pp. 191-274. 
G 
