82 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF ONTARIO. 



be separated, and the former gain more or less protection from its enemies ? Is it not 

 more probable that birds and other natural enemies will avoid species ba\ing a close 

 resemblance to armed or distasteful species, during their entiie life, and wherever they 

 may go 1 Will not birds that have hatched and reached maturity in the north and there 

 learned to avoid armed or inedible species of insects, or such as closely resemble them 

 continue to follow the same policy respecting the latter, after they have migrated far to 

 the southward, and may not the recollections of Pollsles annularis offer protection to 

 species resembling it, like the Podosesia syringm, for instance, far beyond the geographical 

 distribution of the former species itself 1 Unless birds are continually forgetting and 

 having to relearn past lessons, we must certainly admit that protective mimicry and pro- 

 tective coloration may be in effect, over the entire area of distribution of the species de- 

 ceived, even though this extend far beyond the area occupied by either the mimicking or 

 mimicked species, though, as a matter of course, this influetce must, decrease as the 

 dec ived species are displaced by those new and untried. It would certainly seem that 

 we might here find a solution of some of the very many perplexing problems of form, 

 movements and coloration, that are constantly confronting the student of animal life. 



That at leist birds and animals do not readily forget old habits and former experi- 

 ence, especially if the lesson has been emphasized by pain, I will give two illustrations, 

 one borrowed, the other my own, and doubtless many others will readily occur to anycn i 

 who will take the trouble to recall them. 



In his exceptionally valuable woi k, "The Naturalist in La Plata," all the mere 

 valuable because of the author studying life in living forms, and speaking only of what he 

 observed, Mr. W. H. Hudson, informs us that in that treeless country some species of 

 woodpeckers have, through necessity, acquired the habit of seeking their food on the 

 ground, and even nesting in the banks of streams, yet where this change of enviroment 

 and consequent alterations in their way of living, have, in some cases, resulted in struc- 

 tural modifications, thereby showing their antiquity, they still retain their primitive 

 habit of clinging, vertically, to the trunks of trees (presumably introduced) though the 

 habit has long since lost its use. W« thus have evidence, not only of the permanency of 

 established food habits, but that habits of this sort are transmitted through long periods 

 of time through the influence of heredity. 



Years ago, when sparsely settled and therefore in a nearly primitive condition, the 

 prairies of Illinois, where the greater part of my childhood was passed, were inha 

 snakes of various species. My father owned a pair of oxen, one of "which had, when a 

 calf, been bitten by a snake ; an experience that he never forgot. So long as he was 

 retained on the farm, he could seemingly not only detect the presence of these reptiles 

 by sight, but if out of sight and near at hand he appeared to scent them as un< rringly ; 

 and once he detected the presence of a snake, of any kind or dimensions, he would give a 

 snort and with a deep bellow break for home, whether attached to plow, harrow or 

 waggon. On one occasion, with my father, I was crossing a track of prairie in early 

 spring. The dry grass of the previous year had been burned and the ashes had dis- 

 appeared, leaving the surface bare and brown, as the young grass had not yet put forth. 

 I, at the time a very small lad, was in the waggon, while my father walked along 

 beside the oxen. Suddenly " Old Star " gave a snort, and with a bellow that seemed to 

 frighten his mate also, started off on a mad run, taking a bee line for home, not stopping 

 until their stable had been reached. After assuring himself of my safety, my father 

 returned to the place where the oxen had started on their wild run, and near by found a 

 group of snakes that he had not before observed, belonging to a harmless species, collected 

 in a confused mass, as is their habit at this season, enjoying the warm rays of the early 

 spring sun. It does not seem probable that the sting of an insect would have a less last- 

 ing effect on a smaller animal or bird, or the recollections of a particularly distasteful 

 morsel in the mouth soon become extinct, and besides, my father's ox would probably 

 not have acted differently, or any sooner forgotten the pain of the snake bite received on 

 the prairies of Illinois, had he been transferred to New England or California. 



