1873.] MR. R. MELDOLA ON COLOURING IN INSECTS. 153 



Dove of the name of which I am not sure ; and these I am now 

 sending to the care of Dr. Bennett, of Sydney, for the Society. 

 I have had all these hirds in captivity for some months, and they 

 thrive well. 



" The Ptilonopus fasciatus is a favourite bird with the natives of 

 these islands, and is kept very generally by them. Its native name 

 is Manu-tagi (the crying bird). The Samoans train it to act as a 

 decoy, and take it into the woods in a wicker cage open at the top. 

 When it calls, other birds come to it and enter the cage, when they 

 are taken by the native, who lies hidden near the spot. The birds 

 thus taken are eaten by the natives. But this custom of decoying 

 is going out now, in consequence of the ease with which the birds 

 may be shot. The Ptilonopus perousii is a most beautiful bird ; but 

 it is useless trying to send it to England : it lives for a very short 

 time in captivity, even iu Samoa. 



" If you wish any particular birds or other animals which at any 

 time I can send to the Society, I shall always do my best to meet 

 your wishes. 



" Yours very sincerely, 

 " S. J. Whitmee." 



A communication was read from Mr. Henry W. Piers, late Acting 

 Curator of the South-African Museum, Cape-town, containing a de- 

 scription of the external form of Chimeera australis. 



Mr. E. Blyth, C.M.Z.S., made remarks on some Tiger-skins 

 (Felis tigris) from India, Siam, and Siberia, lent for exhibition by 

 Mr. Edwin Ward, F.Z.S. 



The following papers were read : — 



1 . On a certain Class of Cases of Variable Protective Colouring 

 in Insects. By Baphael Meldola, F.C.S., M.Ent. 

 Soc.Lond. (Communicated by A. G. Butler, F.L.S., 

 F.Z.S., &c.) 



[Eeceived November 19, 1872.] 



Among the many classes of biological phenomena that received 

 explanation on the appearance of the 'Origin of Species' in 1859, 

 the principle of disguise, as it exists in most classes of the animal 

 kingdom, but more especially in the Insecta, is one of great interest 

 to the naturalist. In 1861 Mr. H. W. Bates, in an admirable me- 

 moir on the Lepidoptera of the Amazon Valley *, first demonstrated 

 the identity of the causes concerned in the production of what are 

 known as protective resemblances, and of those wonderful mimetic 

 analogies of which he had discovered so many examples among the 

 insects of that region, and which subsequent research has shown to 

 exist in all tropical countries. That these causes were found in the 

 principles of variation and heredity, a struggle for life aud the 

 * Trans. Linn. Soc. vol. xxiii. p. 495. 



