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1 The following is an extract from a letter that I wrote to 

 my wife on the subject. 



" ' . . . I sat down at once to describe to you an extra- 

 ordinary instance of protective mimicry that came under 

 my notice. You must know that this last trip I have 

 been in the habit of collecting new flowers and then 

 trying to paint them when I get into a camp. One 

 afternoon I found that the particular flower which I 

 wanted to paint was dead, so I went into the "jungle" 

 to try and find another specimen. But my attention was 

 soon arrested by a most beautiful dove-coloured pea flower 

 of sorts. "I will not bother about that other flower" I 

 said to myself " but pick this one instead." On suiting 

 the action to the word all the blossoms of my " flower " 

 flew up in a cloud of fluff about my head and then re- 

 settled individually among the brushwood. To use one 

 of your favourite expressions, my " flower " was composed 

 of several very pretty moths "on tiptoe for a flight." I can- 

 not call to mind another instance of insects combining in 

 that sort of way for mutual protection. These moths, 

 whose folded wings are the exact shape of the keel part 

 of a pea flower, were all arranged on the bare stem of 

 some darkish bush ; their heads were all pointing in the 

 same direction and the colour graduated from green at 



[lxxxix 

 the top of the twig to a deep dove colour that would 

 indicate the oldest blossoms below. I was never so com- 

 pletely and so wonderfully taken in during my life, I 

 well believe. I was able to catch about fifteen of the 

 insects which I am sending to the Nat. History Museum, 

 and I hope they will be able to reproduce what I saw.' 



"The insects were taken in a village called Panda, which 

 lies about 40 miles north of Keffi in the Nassarawa province 

 of Northern Nigeria. The place of capture was a patch of 

 dense undergrowth at the edge of a jungle stream and close 

 to the village ford. It was in the month of October that I 

 saw the insects, and the time of day was about 5 p.m. The 

 insects had selected a branch which was apparently leafless 



