Protective Coloration in its relation to Mimicry, etc. 561 
of so-called conspicuous butterflies (dead specimens), the 
examples having been placed as far as possible without 
an unfair attempt to favour my argument, except in a 
few cases where the attempt is obvious. Surely they 
speak eloquently. Could they be seen in their colour- 
coalition, they would speak even more so. Any one care- 
fully examining them will see that, in most cases, their 
dark parts are not distinguishable from the background 
(although the average person, unaccustomed to analyze his 
sight, will, by recognizing the butterfly through its pattern, 
Jancy he sees every part). 
The very keynote of the zoologist’s error is psycho- 
logical. One sees only what is out of place ;—that which is 
in place is harmonious and unnoticed. We know how 
many of these concealed animals we sce, but we do not 
dream of how many we pass by. 
By tracing back to so palpable an example as our 
Sphinx-moth photograph, we see that the various com- 
binations of sharp-edged markings with delicate blendings, 
exactly resembling the combination of patterns made by 
any sharp-edged fabric lying near a ground on which its 
shadow falls, do represent such combinations of form ; so 
that we must believe that so elaborate and delicately 
complete a design would scarcely exist merely to identify 
a species as unpalatable. We find on several Preces, as on 
many Vanesse, and Papiliones, very highly developed 
cases of the varied combinations of design worn by multi- 
tudes of the most obviously protected birds, and other 
animals ;—slight variations of representation either of near 
objects casting a shadow on the background, as in the 
cats, snakes, and moths. mentioned, or of near objects 
relieved against more distant, fainter ones, as in the 
European Woodcock’s wings, many female Pheasants, and 
male Pheasants’ tails, such as that of the Copper 
Pheasant. Doubtless each species has some particular 
headquarters, as it were,—some region which it fits best,— 
and unless we chance to study it in this very region, and 
at the most favourable season, we shall never witness the 
full operation of its protective colour-scheme. Mr, Frank 
M. Chapman has already pointed this out in a_ paper 
entitled “On the Birds of the island of Trinidad,” published 
Feb. 1894, in the “ Bulletin of the American Museum of 
Natural History,” a paper containing some very prophetic 
glances into the future of protective coloration. 
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