Isotely and Coralsuakes. 3 



ferns, in termite liills etc.; tliey liunt in the dusk and during- the 

 night, altliough they have round pupils. Their food consists chiefly 

 of other snakes which lead a similar life. These they follow by 

 scent, digging- into the loose humus, or they catch the lizards sleeping 

 in their holes, and those snakes which live as tolerated lodgers in 

 the burrows of termites and ants are actuallj^ known as "hormi- 

 gueras", ant-catchers. 



Whicli are in turn the enemies of Elaps'^ The professional 

 snake-eating birds of prey scarcely deserve consideration since they 

 are strictly diurnal and hunt mostly on the wing. But there are 

 the Turkeys, natives of some parts of Mexico, which like Peafowl 

 eat any snake they can master. Where Turkeys are kept in numbers 

 they practically clear the vicinity of snakes. More effective foes 

 are the Peccaries with their wide distribution and up-rooting habits. 

 Neither against these pigs nor against turkeys are warning colours 

 of any avail. Then there are the fierce Iguanas, Ctenosnra, which 

 are great diggers and deal lashing blows with their tails. 



Now as to Mimicry. No fault can be found with this principle 

 if it means only that occasional resemblance may convey inimunity, 

 but most advocates of mimicry go further, asserting that natural 

 selection has not only tixed but has produced such cases. They 

 know well, that to be effective, the resemblance must be of an 

 appreciable degree, and they are reluctant to assurae that etfective 

 resemblances can turn up without many previous intermediate stages. 

 They may therefore be delighted to learn that and how first class 

 cases can be evolved easily out of inditferent stages, but — and this 

 they will not relish — without any selection. 



However, the whole question of the effects of mimicry can be 

 turned round. Supposing the 'enemy' has learned that the 'humbugs' 

 are harmless after all, and that, no longer frightened, he boldly 

 attacks also the original bearer of the warning colours? There 

 would result accidents regretted by both parties, a condition of 

 things which in the long run must be harmful to the original warner. 

 In America such a State of anarchy actually does reign, there being 

 in all Elaps-coimtries so many humbugs that the trick has ceased 

 to be etfective. 



To appreciate this condition the following facts have to be 

 considered. 



1. There are, country for country, more mimickers than species 

 of Ela2)s, or rather of badly poisonous individuals, what alone is of 



