Warning Colouration 
words of Wallace, “important that they should 
not be mistaken for defenceless or eatable species 
of the same class or order, since in that case 
they might suffer injury, or even death, before 
their enemies discovered the danger or the use- 
lessness of the attack. They require some 
signal or danger-flag which shall serve as a 
warning to would-be enemies not to attack them, 
and they have usually obtained this in the form 
of conspicuous or brilliant colouration, very dis- 
tinct from the protective tints of the defenceless 
animals allied to them” (Darwinism, page 
232). 
For examples of so-called warningly coloured 
animals, we may refer the reader to Wallace’s 
Darwinism, Poulton’s Essays on Evolution, or 
Beddard’s Animal Colouration. An instance 
familiar to all is our English ladybird. ‘“ Lady- 
birds,” says Wallace, “are another uneatable 
group, and their conspicuous and _ singularly 
spotted bodies serve to distinguish them at a 
glance from all other beetles.” 
In order to establish the theory of warning 
colouration, it is necessary to prove that all, or 
the great majority of conspicuously-coloured 
organisms, are either unpalatable or mimic 
unpalatable forms. If this be so, we are able 
to understand that the possession of gaudy 
colouring may be of advantage to the individual. 
But even if this be satisfactorily proved, we 
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