•26 
JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
some food for his chickens, and they declined to come near it. Lady 
Verney also found that the presence of one of these caterpillars, when 
assuming its terrifying attitude, completely kept off some small birds 
from the bread crumbs she had thrown out for them. 
"Warning Colours." 
We now come to a class of colouring with a meaning exactly opposite 
to that which w^e have hitherto examined. The object of "protective 
colouring " is, as we have seen, to conceal an insect from its enemies, 
whereas the object of " warning colours " is to render the insect as con- 
spicuous as possible. The explanation is that those insects which are 
gaudily coloured are, as a rule, unpalatable. All writers on the subject 
agree that birds, lizards, spiders, and other insectivorous animals 
decline to eat this class of insects. They have therefore no object in 
concealment. On the contrary, their safety depends upon their display- 
ing themselves in as conspicuous a manner as possible, so that they may 
not, by any possibility, be mistaken for other insects which are palatable. 
In the slide before us we have the caterpillar of the Magpie moth, which 
affords a good example of warning colours. It is coloured bright yellow 
with black markings, and although it belongs to the large class of stick 
caterpillars, it makes no effort to resemble either the form or colour of its 
surroundings, but stands prominently out as though it were aware that it 
had nothing whatever to fear ; and the effect is heightened by the fact 
that they are often found in large numbers together. 
Another example is the caterpillar of the Cinnabar moth, coloured 
similarly to the last one, and like it it makes no effort to conceal itself, 
nor shows the slightest apprehension of danger. 
The whole army of insects that are met with in a country walk on a 
summer's day may be divided into two great classes, viz. (1) those that 
are protectively coloured, and are therefore difficult to find, and (2) those 
that are easily seen by their conspicuous markings. And it is a remark- 
able fact that the former class are palatable, and are much relished by 
insectivorous birds and animals, whilst the other class are carefully 
avoided by ihem. 
Combination of Different Methods of Defence. 
We now pass on to consider the combination of the different methods 
of defence which some insects possess, and as an example of this I have 
selected the caterpillar of the Puss moth. In the majority of the cases 
we have examined the insects had practically only one method of defence 
— viz. protective colouring — but there are some insects which are pro- 
vided with an additional means of defence, such as a sting, or the power 
of assuming a terrifying attitude, or the means of ejecting a poisonous 
liquid, so that if one line of defence fails it has another to fall back 
upon. Now, by a glance at the caterpillar of the Puss moth we see 
that it harmonises well with the colour of the Willow leaves on which 
it feeds, and that the veins of the leaf correspond with the lines formed 
by the rings in the body of the caterpillar; and, further, that the light- 
coloured line of the midrib of the leaf is reproduced in the transverse 
