XX 



the edge. No doubt our other Vanessas show this to a greater 

 or less extent. I suppose it would have been classed by 

 Brunner as ' hypertely.' " 



A few days later Dr. Perkins wrote : — 



" I cannot describe the curious way in which the leaflet- 

 like projections appear, as if they might arise on more or 

 less erect stalks. The appearance to me was not that of 

 dead leaves at all. 



" I think the commoner Vanessas will nearly all reproduce 

 this appearance to a conspicuous extent, as I particularly 

 noticed it in the case of a resting specimen of one of these — 

 probably either urticae or atalanta, after seeing the Commas. 



" The specimen I sketched was drawn, I believe, on the 

 morning after the day it emerged, but I looked at all the 8 

 or 9 we bred, and the appearance was much the same in each. 



"I fear I did not look at the Commas obliquely, so that the 

 margin as well as the dead-leaf surface could be seen. I was 

 so astonished at seeing the strange appearance of what is 

 usuall}' a thin edge, as such an edge would appear sufficiently 

 invisible." 



Dr. Perkins' drawing was exhibited to the meeting together 

 with a male specimen of c-album which had been found 

 hibernating in a shed at Oxford and had died in the position 

 of rest, showing the appearance described above. The wing- 

 edges of a second male, found a few weeks later on the railings 

 of the Oxford University Parks, by Commander J. J. Walker, 

 were bent outwards to a far less extent than in the exhibited 

 individual. 



The main significance of Dr. Perkins' extremely interesting 

 observation — also made last year by Commander Walker — 

 was, Prof. Poulton believed, to be found in the oblique views 

 of the insect, and the view from the side, rather than in that 

 from the edge. Inspection of the exhibited specimen showed 

 that the jagged-leaf appearance was greatly enhanced by the 

 out-turned edges when seen obliquely from the side, the 

 number of visible projections being doubled and the effect 

 further increased by the bending in two different directions 

 instead of the maintenance of the plane of the wings. The 

 effect was, of course, less marked from the direct side-view, 



