262 THE COLOUES OF ANIMALS 



near a large tree, the trunk of which rose fully fifty feet 

 before it threw off a branch, when a green Anolis 

 dropped past my face to the ground, followed by a 

 long green snake that had been pursuing it amongst 

 the foliage above, and had not hesitated to precipitate 

 itself after its prey. The lizard alighted on its feet 

 and hurried away ; the snake fell like a coiled-up 

 watch-spring, and opened out directly to continue 

 the pursuit ; but, on the spur of the moment, I struck 

 at it with a switch and prevented it. I regretted 

 afterwards not having allowed the chase to continue, 

 and watched the issue, but I doubt not that the lizard, 

 active as it was, would have been caught by the swift- 

 gliding snake, as several specimens of the latter that 

 I opened contained lizards.' l 



It is almost certain that these terrifying appear- 

 ances in the larvae of our temperate latitudes first 

 arose in warmer countries, where the danger decep- 

 tively suggested by the Mimicry is real and obvious. 

 The success which attends this method of defence, in 

 countries where the reptilian fauna cannot be said to 

 constitute a source of alarm, is similarly due to the 

 inheritance of instincts which arose in the tropics, 

 and which live on, as that unconquerable dread of any- 

 thing snake-like, which is so commonly exhibited by 

 the land vertebrates, including ourselves. 



* LOG. cit. pp. 339, 340. 



