284 NATURAL HISTORY OF OUR SHORES 



The other suggestions fail equally, for they do not lure 

 prey, and they are not, and need not be, mimetic. 



Passing to the worms, we have gorgeous colours in many 

 that never come to the light. The large scarlet Nemertean 

 Valencia splendida is a good example. This colour is due 

 to pigment. 



The Nereids, with their brilliant tints, due to lamellar 

 arrangement in the cuticle, on a dark ground, have had 

 their tints put down to " warning colour." But such is not 

 the case. Nereis is very good to eat, in fishes' estimation, 

 and is the most valued bait for inshore line fishermen. 



The gorgeous, peacock-rivalling dress of Aphrodita 

 acullata has been also considered a " warning," but this 

 aphrodita is not strongly armed, and dog-fishes often have 

 their stomachs crammed with them, while the terribly- 

 armed Hermione hystrix, with its hosts of multi-barbed 

 spikes, that should have a warning notice, is dull brown. 



In the Ascidians the same difficulty presents itself. In 

 some the colours are most varied, even amongst those, such 

 as Botryllus, which cluster side by side, often on the same 

 frond of fucus. 



Of what use to the owner can be the dazzling vermilion 

 of the Coating Compound Ascidian, Leptoclinum Lacazii ? 



Patches of this, nearly a foot square, adhering to the 

 vertical sides of rocks at low spring tides can be seen 

 from a hundred yards away not warning, or the yellow 

 ones by its side would need, and of course possess, warning 

 as well. No present theory accounts for this either. 



Ascidians are not eaten by anything I know of, let their 

 colours be bright or dull. 1 



Beddard lays much stress on the food of the animals 

 (in different groups), the transfer of the pigments of the 

 eaten to the eater, but the ascidians, like the sponges, 



1 Dogfishes, and the Black Bream, eat the gelatinous forms on 

 Zoetera, swallowing plant and all. 



