216 CHARLES DARWIN. 



work and upon the success of the Essex Field Club, 

 in which Meldola had taken a leading part. Another 

 brief note of August 10th, 1881, apparently refers to 

 some paper which cannot now be identified. 



The following interesting letter is of uncertain 

 date : 



"? 19th, ? 1881. "Down. 



"DEAR MR. MELDOLA, When I read the F. M. [Fritz 

 Miiller] paper your doubt occurred to me and I must say this, 

 I would rather have expected that the knowledge of distaste- 

 ful caterpillars would have been inherited, but I distinctly 

 remember an account (when Wallace first propounded his 

 warning colors) published of some birds, I think turkeys, 

 being experimented upon and they shook their heads after try- 

 ing some caterpillars as if they had a horrid taste in their 

 mouths. I fancied this thing was published by Mr. Weir or 

 could it have been by Mr. Butler 1 It would be well to look in 

 Mr. Belt's * Nicaragua ' as he tried some experiments. I am 

 not sure that there is not some statement of the kind in it. 



" Yours faithfully, CHARLES DARWIN. 



" I daresay Mr. Wallace or Bates would remember the state- 

 ment of some birds shaking their heads to which I refer." 



The statement about the turkeys evidently refers 

 to Stainton's experiment with young birds of this kind, 

 which immediately devoured numerous protectively 

 coloured moths, but, after seizing, invariably rejected, 

 a conspicuous white species (Spilosoma menthastri). 

 It was Belt's ducks which shook their heads after 

 tasting a very conspicuous Nicaraguan frog. Darwin 

 wished to show by this evidence that there was 

 no instinctive knowledge such as would have 



