222 ANIMAL LIFE 
only to be expected that this useful modification of colors 
and patterns, that results in the striking phenomena of 
special protective resemblances and mimicry, should be 
specially widespread and pronounced among insects. More- 
over, they are mostly deficient in other means of defense, 
and seem to be the favorite food for many different kinds 
of animals. Protective resemblance is their best and most 
widely adopted means of preserving life. 
114. No volition in mimicry.—The use of the word mim- 
icry has been criticised because it suggests the exercise of 
volition or intent on the part of the mimicking animal. 
The student should not entertain this conception of mim- 
icry. In the use of “mimicry” in connection with the 
phenomena just described, the biologist ascribes to it a 
technical meaning, which excludes any suggestion of voli- 
tion or intent on the part of the mimic. Just how such 
extraordinary end perfect cases of mimicry as shown by 
Phyllium and Kallima have come to exist is a problem 
whose solution is not agreed on by naturalists, but none of 
them makes volition—the will or intent of the animal—any 
part of his proposed solution. Each case of mimicry is the 
result of a slow and gradual change, through a long series 
of ancestors. The mimicry may indeed include the adop- 
tion of certain habits of action which strengthen and make 
more pronounced the deception of shape and color. But 
these habits, too, are the result of a long development, and 
are instinctive or reflex—that is, performed without the 
exercise of volition or reason. 
115. Color; its utility and beauty.—The causes of color, 
and the uses of color in animals and in plants are subjects 
to which naturalists have paid and are paying much atten- 
tion. The subject of “protective resemblances and mim- 
icry” is only one, though one of the most interesting, 
branches or subordinate subjects of the general theory of 
the uses of color. Other uses are obvious. Bright colors 
and markings may serve for the attraction of mates; thus 
