78 N.S. ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



The results as shown in Table XII of the second series of experiments, 

 show that there is a considerable difference in the rapidity of the action 

 of the wet and dry poisons on the leaves, the latter being much the slow- 

 er. Naturally the flies would be attracted to the moisture, so in the spray- 

 ing, care must be taken so that the flies will have all surfaces before them 

 wet. Otherwise a day or so may elapse before the adults have taken up 

 sufficient dry poison to even sicken them — days during which the females 

 may be busy ovipositing. 



To sum up, so far the us of the sweetened poison spray has proved 

 itself to be efficient and practicable in the control of the apple maggot. 



In conclusion, I wish to thank most heartily Professor Brittain for 

 his guidance and assistance in this work. Much credit is also due to Mr. 

 L. G. Saunders for his careful drawings and for his help during the past 

 season. To the inspectors, praise is also due for the excellent way in which 

 they tackled the problems of inspecting the orchards and examining the 

 apples, all of which work was extremely tedious to say the least. Sincere 

 thanks are also tendered to the fruit-growers for the way they kindly put 

 their orchards at our disposal, for their assistance in the spraying of the 

 same, and for their encouragement. 



PROTECTIVE COLORATION. 



By E. Chesley Allen. 



T N the few remarks that I am to make this evening, I do not pre- 

 *- tend to present anything new, and I trust that the professional 

 entomologists present will not be expecting anything but principles 

 with which they are perfectly familiar. In other words it should be 

 understood that my remarks are those of an amateur for the amateurs 

 present. 



And since the principles of protective coloration apply not only to 

 insects but to nearly all classes of animals as well. I am going to ask the 

 liberty to use an illustration of these general principles examples of ani- 

 mals other than insects. For example, we have here a specimen of a 

 bird, well known to all our sportsmen — the woodcock, and I wish to call 

 your attention to two main principles in its coloring. First, you will no- 

 tice the decided lighter coloring of the under parts, as compared with 

 the back. This is only one example of thousands of instances in which 

 animals are lighter below than above. In fact it is difficult to think of any 

 larger mammal, bird, fish, or reptile in which this is not so. Now what is 

 the reason of this almost universal principle? We are all aware that if a 

 rounded object of one uniform color be held before the eyes, that the ob- 



