CONSPICUOUS COLOUR 33 



away it would fall an easy victim to any bird. 

 In London, where the Sparrows have had 

 little experience of White Butterflies, I have 

 on several occasions (four) seen Sparrows 

 (P. domesticus) take them on the wing, but 

 always, after pecking them and killing them, 

 they have left them. Apparently they are 

 relatively unpalatable. 



The Red Admiral Butterfly (Pyrameis 

 Atalanta) spends many hours of the day, 

 with outstretched wings, on flowers : flat 

 flowers are especially chosen ; here it is always 

 a conspicuous object, no matter how viewed. 

 It depends for its safety on quickness of sight 

 and rapidity of flight. When sleeping, it 

 closes its wings, displaying the under surfaces 

 only, which are not conspicuously coloured ; 

 and it chooses to rest among surroundings 

 which render it inconspicuous among dead 

 leaves or on the barks of trees, &c. If 

 disturbed whilst thus resting, it does not fly 

 away, but relies for escape entirely on its pro- 

 tective colouring, and the simulation of an 

 inanimate object. 



These habits associated in the same insect, 

 with exposure of the bright upper surfaces 

 of the wings on the one hand, and with the 

 dull under surfaces on the other, indicate, 



c 



