VI 



MIMICRY IN THE BUTTERFLIES OF 

 NORTH AMERICA 



Written from the notes of the Anniversary Address de- 

 livered to the Entomological Society of America, Baltimore, 

 Thursday, December 31, 1908. 



INTRODUCTORY 



WITHIN a few weeks of the hundredth anni- 

 versary of Darwin's birth, and nearly midway 

 between the fiftieth anniversaries of the publica- 

 tion of Natural Selection on July 1 last and the 

 Origin of Species on Nov. 24 next, it seemed to me 

 specially appropriate to select for this address 

 a subject that is closely associated with Darwinian 

 teachings. Although he did not publish it during 

 his lifetime, we now know from his correspond- 

 ence that Darwin independently originated the 

 interpretation of Mimicry which was afterwards 

 suggested by H. W. Bates. 1 Its development 

 in the mind of the naturalist of the Amazons and 

 the rival theory afterwards suggested by Fritz 

 Muller, were both of them the direct outcome, in 

 Bates's case the very speedy outcome, of the Origin. 

 The deep interest which Darwin took in the 



1 See pp. 123-4. 



