290 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [June, 
of this species at the time of the tests was found to be the sardine 
(Atherina laticeps), a silvery fish that could readily be stained any 
color. A large number of Atherina stained vermilion, yellow, 
green, blue, or purple were eaten practically as rapidly as fed. Others 
dyed and treated with formic acid, formaldehyde, red pepper, quinine, 
ammonia, or carbon bisulphid were taken with equal readiness. 
Atherina were made unpalatable, however, by sewing in their mouths 
bits of the tentacles of medusz, and an association of this unpala- 
tability with a color (red) was established in the individuals of a 
colony of 150 snappers. The association was found to persist at 
least five weeks. 
The brightly colored fishes of the coral reefs were then offered to: 
the snappers, and they attempted to capture all offered, and actually 
did take all but one species, of which the single large specimen 
offered escaped. The species taken were of a variety of colors, 
including colors and patterns considered as typically warning. In 
several species ‘‘conspicuousness is combined with unpleasant 
attributes in the form of defensive spines, the typical warning com- 
bination, yet these fish were all instantly taken” (p. 303). 
It was further found “that the gray snapper discriminates with 
great rapidity and delicacy between the various possible food ele- 
ments of its environment, which are not conspicuously different 
from each other,” thus proving that the bright colors of the reef 
fishes would be unnecessary even were their possessors unpalatable- 
Hence ‘the conclusion is reached that the conspicuousness of 
coral-reef fishes, since it is not a secondary sexual character and has 
no necessary meaning for protection, aggression, or as warning, is. 
without biological significance” (p. 320). 
AMPHIBIA. 
In Countries Other than the United States. 
Experiments dealing chiefly with Amphibia are few. Those of 
Poulton with Hyla® are cited in another place. A. G. Butler, 
Eltringham, Plateau, and Finn also record short experiments with 
animals of this class. Butler published” the fact that he had found 
the larve of Abraxas grossulariata, Halia wauaria, and a sawfly, all 
fed upon gooseberry, to be distasteful to frogs (and lizards). He 
asks: ‘May it not be possible that the plant transmits some pecu- 
9 Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1887, pp. 269-274. 
10 Ent. Monthly Mag. 5, 1868, pp. 131-132. 
