

COLOURS OF ANIMALS. 39 



Certain South. American butterflies, known collectively 

 under their family name of Heliconidce, exhibit a bril- 

 liant colouration, but likewise possess a very strong 

 odour; and, it may be presumed from the sequel, a 

 highly disagreeable taste as well. They are highly 

 conspicuous insects, and the under sides of their 

 wings are as brilliantly coloured as the upper surfaces ; 

 so that, even in repose, and when resting with the 

 wings apposed over the back, they are readily 

 enough seen. Their colours are prominent, not to say 

 gaudy. Yellows, reds, and whites commingle with 

 blacks, blues, and other tints in a striking fashion. 

 They are, further, by no means rapid flyers, and, 

 putting the foregoing circumstances of their gaudy 

 colour and their slow movements together, no group 

 of animals would seem more liable to the attacks of 

 bird-enemies than these Helicon butterflies. Yet the 

 reverse is the case. So far from being decimated, 

 their race flourishes apace, and this result is clearly 

 due to the strong odour and nauseous taste they 

 possess. The mere touch of a Helicon is in itself a 

 pungent matter, which reminds one of nothing so 

 much as the persistence of the musk-rat's secretion, or 

 the still more awful effluvium of the American skunk. 

 Their neighbour butterflies may fall victims by the 

 score to the rapacity of their feathered enemies, but the 

 Helicons are spared from even the semblance of attack. 

 So far there seems nothing unusual or striking in a 

 group of butterflies being protected, through strong 

 odour and worse taste, from their natural enemies, 



