( xevi ) 
soon experience tells and is acted upon. Prof. Lloyd-Morgan 
made special trial of these young birds with many distasteful 
insects and their larve, and states in conclusion (J.c., p. 43) 
that he did not find a single instance of instinctive avoidance, 
but that the result of his observations is that ‘in the 
‘* absence of parental guidance, the young birds have to learn 
‘* for themselves what is good to eat and what is distasteful, 
‘and have no instinctive aversions.” 
In concluding what I feel to be a very incomplete outline 
of what has been done in this most important branch of 
zoological research, I cannot refrain from expressing the 
gratification I find in noting how by far the chief part in the 
investigations pursued and in the deductions derived from them 
has from the outset been borne by Fellows of this Society. 
It is work on which we may with justice be congratulated, and 
which should encourage perseverance in the same and kindred 
lines of inquiry. 
Here, as in many other biological researches, it cannot be 
too strongly insisted on that no result of lasting value can be 
hoped for without resort to the living animals among all the 
natural conditions and surroundings. It was not a stay-at- 
home theorist, familiar only with the dried specimens of the 
cabinet, that detected the meaning of mimicry and gave to 
science a rational explanation of the mystery, but an ardent 
explorer and naturalist, who devoted many of the best years 
of his life to field-work in tropical lands. Iam the last to 
undervalue the knowledge of the systematist, which is abso- 
lutely indispensable to all intelligible record, and I fully 
recognize that no naturalist can be properly equipped for his 
work without a fair amount of systematic training; but 
philosophical discovery in any direction such as we are now 
considering can never be truly advanced without unflagging 
observation and experiment among organisms living in their 
natural environment. How but by the closest and most 
exact attention to the entire life-history of animals in their 
native haunts can we expect to deal satisfactorily with such 
questions as this of mimicry, of protective resemblances 
generally, of seasonal dimorphism, sexual selection, local 
variation, and the like? Admitting gratefully the good 
