CHAPTER IX 



WARNING COLORATION AND MIMICRY 



The skunk as an example of warning coloration — AYarniug colours among 

 insects — Butterflies — Caterpillars — Mimicry — How mimicry lias been 

 produced — Heliconidte — Perfection of the imitation — Other cases of 

 mimicry among Lepidoptera — Mimicry among protected groups — Its 

 explanation — Extension of the principle — I\Iimicry in other orders 

 of insects — Mimicry among the vertebrata — Snakes — The rattlesnake 

 and the cobra — ilimicry among birds — Objections to the theory of 

 mimicry — Concluding remarks on warning colours and mimicr}'. 



We have now to deal with a class of colours which are 

 the very opposite of those we have hitherto considered, since, 

 instead of serving to conceal the animals that joossess them 

 or as recognition marks to their associates, they are developed 

 for the express purpose of rendering the species conspicuous. 

 The reason of this is that the animals in cjuestion are either 

 the i^ossessors of some deadly weapons, as stings or poison 

 fangs, or they are uneatable, and are thus so disagree- 

 able to the usual enemies of their kind that they are never 

 attacked when their peculiar powers or properties are known. 

 It , is, therefore, important that they should not be mis- 

 taken for defenceless or eatable species of the same class or 

 order, since in that case they might suffer injury, or even death, 

 before their enemies discovered the danger or the uselessness 

 of the attack. They require some signal or danger -flag 

 which shall serve as a Avarning to would-be enemies not to 

 attack them, and they have usually obtained this in the 

 form of conspicuous or brilliant coloration, very distinct 

 from the protective tints of the defenceless animals allied to 

 them. 



