418 Mr. R. Meldola on Mimicry between 
resemble another which is more abundant in individuals, 
although both may possess distasteful qualities. The chief 
factor concerned in bringing about this resemblance is the 
inexperience of young birds and other insectivorous foes, which 
necessitates the sacrifice of a certain number of distasteful indi- 
viduals before they are recognized as inedible. In the papers 
published in ‘ Kosmos’ no direct evidence of such imexperi- 
ence is adduced ; and in asubsequent number of ‘ Nature’* Mr. 
W. L. Distant, whose special knowledge of Lepidoptera gives 
considerable weight to his opinion, objected to the theory ad- 
vanced by Fritz Miiller and accepted by Mr. Wallace, on the 
ground that a knowledge of eatable and uneatable insects is 
hereditary in birds, and that no individuals of protected species 
would be sacrificed to the inexperience of young birds as re- 
quired by the theory. In his recently published part of the 
‘Rhopalocera Malayana’ (part 11. p. 33), Mr. Distant adduces 
some further arguments against the new view of mimicry ; 
and J have only delayed entering into the discussion up to 
the present time in order to give Fritz Miiller the opportunity 
of defending his views. Having just received a letter from 
this eminent naturalist, I will now venture to consider the 
validity of the objections referred to. 
The experiment of the late Mr. Spalding, quoted by Mr. 
Distant in support of his objection, will be found, on close 
analysis, not to have any direct bearing on the class of cases 
under consideration. A young turkey bred in confinement 
displays fear when for the first time in its life 1t comes across 
a bee; and similarly chickens ‘‘ gave evidence of instinctive 
fear of these sting-bearing insects.” Now the alarm displayed 
by a young bird at the sight of a bee has no analogy whatever 
with the inexperience of a young bird as regards nauseous 
butterflies, as I will immediately attempt to show. 
The swallowing of a stinging-insect like a bee would pro- 
bably be attended by very unpleasant if not serious conse- 
quences in the case of a young bird; and it is not in the least 
surprising therefore that a dread of such insects should in 
this instance have become hereditary. But I cannot see how 
we are warranted in reasoning from this experiment that a 
knowledge of uneatable butterflies should also have become 
hereditary in all young insectivorous birds. No very serious 
result would arise from a young bird pecking at and killing 
such butterflies ; and amidst the countless swarms of insects in 
the tropics there must be a vast choice of food offered, so that 
the knowledge of nauseous species at first sight is not a 
matter of life and death, and there is thus no reason why this 
* Vol. xxvi. p. 105. 
