44 Fowler: Presidential Address to Lincs. Naturalists’ Union. 
humps of hairs which easily come out. They are the parts first 
seized by an enemy, and the unpleasant mouthful is usually 
sufficient to prevent a second attempt. The Squirrel’s bushy 
tail is probably on much the same principle. An enemy in 
pursuit would most likely make a grab at the large tail and get 
simply a mouthful of hair for its pains. 
If we pursue the subject further we get to variable pro- 
tection, a most interesting branch of the subject, and to the 
great question of mimicry. The latter differs from protective 
resemblance by the fact that it deals with the imitation of living 
things, whereas protective resemblance is confined, strictly 
speaking, to a likeness to inanimate objects. The best instances 
of mimicry are found in tropical countries, but in our own 
country we have the Clear-wing Moths closely resembling 
Wasps and Hornets, and so being protected; and the Hawk- 
like appearance of the Common Cuckoo must have struck most 
of us. 
e is, in fact, no limit to this most fascinating field of 
observation. ften we may make mistakes, but these very 
mistakes lead to corrections and open up new side-paths o 
knowledge. Nor t we, in the end, forget the important 
bearing that even the least of these facts has upon the great 
question of natural selection and of evolution generally. Our 
ideas regarding these have been considerably modified of late 
years. The term evolution has been applied to so many 
sciences, not to speak of ethics and theology, and in so many 
connotations, that it has almost ceased to have any definite 
meaning and has become too often a mere catch-word. At the 
same time there are vast truths underlying it. We must indeed 
allow that the old system of teleology or ww causes was to 
a great extent done away with by the ory of natural 
selection, tard one can for long be an Zbl in the 
we have been pactine without feeling convinced that this 
theory simply shifted the point of view and opened up to us 
teleology of a far greater and deeper character. I am afraid 
that I have conisldeealy digressed from county natural history, 
but I hope that you will forgive me, and, in conclusion, I should 
like to say that, since I wrote the greater part of my address, 
a new society has been formed in Lincoln under the title of the 
Lincoln Scientific Society, which we hope may grow into a 
County Association, and, as a sectional society for home work 
and the reading of papers, supplement the excellent field work 
of the Lincolnshire Naturalists’ Union 
Naturalist, 
