The late Mr. S. L. Elliott once informed us that on a red barn with white trimmings he observed that white moths (Spilosoma, Hyphantria, and _Acronycta oblinita_) rested on the white parts, while on the darker, reddish portions sat Catocalæ and other dark or reddish moths. Gross observed that house-flies would frequent a bluish green ring on the ceiling of his chamber; but if it were covered by white paper, the flies would leave the spot, though they would return as soon as the paper ring was removed (Kolbe). We have observed that house-flies prefer green paper to the yellowish wall of a kitchen, but were not attracted to sheets of a Prussian blue paper, attached to the same wall and ceiling. It is generally supposed that the shape and high colors of flowers attract insects; but Plateau has made a number of ingenious experiments which tend to disprove this view. He used in his investigations the dahlia, with its central head of flowerets, which contrast so strongly with the corolla. He finds (1) that insects frequent flowers which have not undergone any mutilation, but whose form and colors are hidden by green leaves. (2) Neither the shape nor lively colors of the central head (capitulum) seem to attract them. (3) The gayly colored peripheral flowerets of simple dahlias and, consequently, of the heads of other composite flowers, do not play the rôle of signals, such as has been attributed to them. (4) The insects are evidently guided by another sense than that of sight, and this sense is probably that of smell. LITERATURE ON THE EYES AND VISION _a_. General =Serres, Marcel de.= Mémoires sur les yeux composés et les yeux lisses des insectes. Montpellier, 1813. =Müller, Johannes.= Zur vergleichenden Physiologie des Gesichtssinnes der Menschen und der Tiere. 8 Taf. Leipzig, 1826. —— Ueber die Augen des Maikäfers. (Meckel’s Archiv f. Anat. u. Phys., 1829, pp. 177–181; Ann. d. Sc. nat., 1829, sér. 1, xviii, pp. 108–112.) =Dujardin, F.= Sur les yeux simples ou stemmates des animaux articulés. (C. R. Acad. Sci., Paris, 1847, xxv, pp. 711–714.) =Gottsche, C. M.= Beitrag zur Anatomie und Physiologie des Auges der Krebse und Fliegen. (Müller’s Archiv für Anat. u. Phys., 1852, pp. 483–492. Figs.) =Murray, Andrew.= On insect vision and blind insects. (Edinburgh New Phil. Jour., new ser. vi, 1857, pp. 120–138.) =Claparède, Édouard.= Zur Morphologie der zusammengesetzten Augen bei den Arthropoden. (Zeitschr. f. wissensch. Zool., 1859, x, pp. 191–214, 3 Taf.) =Dor, H.= De la vision chez les Arthropodes. (Archives Sci. Phys, et Nat., 1861, xii, p. 22, 1 Pl.) =Landois, H.= Die Raupenaugen (Ocelli compositi mihi). (Zeitschr. f. wissensch. Zool., xvi, 1866, pp. 27–44, 1 Taf.)