No. GOo] ANIMAL COLORATION 



fore be well able to exist beyond the range of i 

 wliicli they may have mimicked in other times and 

 if their partieular type of coloration is as well suited 

 the new environment as to the old. 



An apparent inconsistency in the Batesian and Miiller- 

 ian hypotheses as at present interpreted has been 

 quently noted by hostile critics. To Eeighard'*' it ap- 

 pears, for example, that if insectivorous vertebrates liave 

 jnished the resemblance between mimics and their models 

 to the point of apparent identity, ordinary specific dif- 

 ferences should suffice to warn tliem of tlie uni)alatability 

 of pros])ective and familiar pi'ey. 



This objection is so fairly mot by the revised liyi>otli- 

 esis, and the ground for criticism so com})ietely ri'inoved, 

 that further comment is unnecessary. But even \y\wi\ no 

 inconsistency is involved in tlie explanation of tlie facts, 

 some will doubtless consider the resemblance of the mimic 

 to its model, or of insects to other objects, hypertelic. It 

 is doubtful, however, whether hypertely embodies a real 

 difficulty. For just as two streams flowing down a tol- 

 erably smooth inclined plane of infinite length will even- 

 tually unite, if all deviations of one or both which cx.ccd 

 a given magnitude are blocked when they tend to iiiciva-c 

 the distance between them, so, if heritable variations in 

 the color and pattern of a given mimic are distributed ac- 

 cording to Quetelet's law, for example, and only the ex- 

 treme forms most unlike the model be eliminated in suc- 

 cessive generations, closer and closer rosoniblance 

 between the two may ai»i)car and ai)pr()ach identity with- 

 out appeal to that over-ivtinciiuMii df vi>i()n whose ex- 

 istence among insects' enemie^- is at lea<t iu'ehh^matical. 



It is a standing objection to the niiniiei-y hx pot lie>e<. 

 and indeed to the explanation of any hiulil) roniiiiex 

 adaptation by natural selection, that at e\-eiy >ta-(' liie 

 degree of resemblance attained nnist lia\e U'ou servi.v- 

 able in order to assure its survivid. It i> nnder>to..d, 

 however, that this objection is a}»]>li<'al>le only to <ta-es 



*8Carn. Inst. Wash., Papers from Tortu,ias Lah., \o\. i2, p. 



ted W 



[iiller- 

 n fre- 



