130 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



youngsters and put it up. Away it went, full speed, followed by 

 one, two, or three of the huge monsters. No Greyhound fancier 

 ever saw a better bit of coursing as the little chap doubled and 

 turned with the greatest agility, while over and over again the 

 great lumbering Cod overshot their mark, and the little fish went 

 to earth, only, however, to be again routed out and hunted until 

 not one was left."* 



The theory of mimicry is probably the still imperfect recog- 

 nition of a great truth which is struggling to survive a mass of 

 more or less irrelevant evidence too frequently offered in its 

 support. It has long been regarded as an unconscious registra- 

 tion of a preservative action of Natural Selection ; it is here 

 suggested that it is largely an act of conscious animal volition. 

 Whatever view be held, this alone is certain, that the theory in 

 either its demonstrated or suggestive enunciation has been the 

 means of a vast record of facts pertaining to the life-histories of 

 animals and plants which would otherwise have remained either 

 unobserved or disregarded. 



* ' Lancashire Sea Fisheries,' pp. 34-5. 



