Insects and their Naturcd Enemies. 153 
ruiiuing. I have on two, if not three, occasions saved the 
life of one of my Scarlet Tanagers by supplying it with 
this medicine. 
Touching terrifying attitudes in larvae I have no faith 
whatever, A Sphinx-larva is attacked at once whatever 
its attitude. On the other hand, if its anterior segments 
are so ornamented as to resemble the head of a venomous 
snake I do not for a moment doubt that, whatever its 
attitude, a bird would avoid it. 
Birds are not terrified by attitudes, and a hungry bird 
is rarely deceived by the resemblance of an insect to a leaf; 
he sees the legs and immediately approaches and pecks it, 
which usually settles the matter to his satisfaction. It is 
against the passing bird not pressed by hunger that the 
insect’s resemblance to surroundings is a protection. 
In the case of a Stag-beetle, a Mantis, or probably of 
some of the larger tropical spiders, the upright attitude 
with ojaen claws ready for defence naturally make the 
attacks of a bird wary: he leaps from side to side, getting 
in a peck and jumping back out of harm’s way until he 
has capsized his small opponent, and then (for a time at 
any rate) he has it at an advantage. It is a most entertain¬ 
ing sight to put a good-sized Lucanus cervus into the cage 
of a Thrush in which there is space for free movement: 
the attitude of the little creature does not alarm but 
simply makes the bird cautious and cunning. It always 
seems to me that the more enthusiastic of the advocates 
of protective assimilation are in too great a hurry; they 
wish to prove that the advantages of protection are far 
greater than they actually are; as though it did not come 
to the same thing in the end if an animal’s disguise or 
nastiness served at times to protect it as it would do if it 
were universally efficacious: it is merely a question nf 
time, and Nature has had any amount of time to work 
her miracles in. That some caterpillars are more pro¬ 
tected than others doubtless explains the fact that they 
have become a general nuisance, like those of Pygaera 
huccphala and Abraxas grossidariata. 
Nastiness is the factor which protects insects best from 
birds: they will rarely touch the common Soldier-beetle ; 
but by far the greater number will freely eat the buzzing 
bee-like Eristalis temcx or the wasp-like Sun-flies; yet 
among the larger birds there are not a few which feed 
freely upon wasps, like the Bee-eaters, the Jay-Thrushes, 
