RESEMBLANCES AMONG ANIMALS. 101 
There is, however, in one group-of Vertebrata such a 
general similarity of form, that a very slight modi- 
fication, if accompanied by identity ‘of colour, would 
produce the necessary amount of resemblance; and 
at the same time there exist a number of species which 
it would be advantageous for others to resemble, since 
they are armed with the most fatal weapons of offence. 
We accordingly find that reptiles furnish us with a 
very remarkable and instructive case of true mimicry. 
Mimicry among Snakes. 
There are in tropical America a number of venomous 
snakes of the genus Elaps, which are ornamented with 
brilliant colours disposed in a peculiar manner. The 
ground colour is generally bright red, on which are 
black bands of various widths and sometimes divided 
into two or three by yellow rings. Now, in the same 
country are found several genera of harmless snakes, 
having no affinity whatever with the above, but 
coloured exactly the same. For example, the poisonous 
Elaps fulvius often occurs in Guatemala with simple 
black bands on a coral-red ground; and in the same 
country is found the harmless snake Pliocerus equalis, 
coloured and banded in identically the same manner. 
A variety of Elaps corallinus has the black bands 
narrowly bordered with yellow on the same red ground 
colour, and a harmless snake, Homalocranium semi- 
cinctum, has exactly the same markings, and both are 
found ‘in Mexico. The deadly Elaps lemniscatus has 
the black bands very broad, and each of them divided 
