76 NATURAL SELECTION in 



brown, so that when on the wing and seen from below they 

 are undistinguishable. The curious point, however, is that 

 the Accipiter has a much wider range than the Harpagus, 

 and in the regions where the insect-eating species is not found 

 it no longer resembles it, the under wing-coverts varying to 

 white ; thus indicating that the red-brown colour is kept true 

 by its being useful to the Accipiter to be mistaken for the 

 insect-eating species, which birds have learnt not to be afraid of. 



Mimicry among Mammals 



Among the Mammalia the only case which may be true 

 mimicry is that of the insectivorous genus Cladobates, found 

 in the Malay countries, several species of which very closely 

 resemble squirrels. The size is about the same, the long 

 bushy tail is carried in the same way, and the colours are 

 very similar. In this case the use of the resemblance must 

 be to enable the Cladobates to approach the insects or small 

 birds on which it feeds under the disguise of the harmless 

 fruit-eating squirrel 



Objections to Mr. Bates' Theory of Mimicry 



Having now completed our survey of the most prominent 

 and remarkable cases of mimicry that have yet been noticed, 

 we must say something of the objections that have been made 

 to the theory of then- production given by Mr. Bates, and 

 which we have endeavoured to illustrate and enforce in the 

 preceding pages. Three counter explanations have been pro- 

 posed. Professor Westwood admits the fact of the mimicry 

 and its probable use to the insect, but maintains that each 

 species was created a mimic for the purpose of the protection 

 thus afforded it. Mr. Andrew Murray, in his paper on the 

 " Disguises of Nature," inclines to the opinion that similar 

 conditions of food and of surrounding circumstances have 

 acted in some unknown way to produce the resemblances ; 

 and when the subject was discussed before the Entomological 

 Society of London, a third objection was added that heredity 

 or the reversion to ancestral types of form and coloration 

 might have produced many of the cases of mimicry. 



Against the special creation of mimicking species there are 

 all the objections and difficulties in the way of special creation 



