In the same way, every increase of resemblance on the part of the mimics would increase their chances of escaping notice, and any one who is accustomed to observe butterflies in nature can well understand that even very slight resemblances may have formed the beginning of the selection process; perhaps even a mere variation in the manner of flight, combined with the habit of associating with the swarms of Heliconiidæ. I myself have many times been momentarily deceived in our own woods by a White of unusually majestic flight, so that I took it for an _Apatura_ or a _Limenitis_. If, therefore, individual Whites occurred here and there in the Amazon valley, which flew somewhat after the manner of the Heliconiidæ, and associated with them, they might possibly have attained a certain degree of security through that alone, and it would be greatly increased if at the same time they varied somewhat in colour in the direction of their companions. In any case there can be no doubt whatever that in these cases a real transformation of the species in colour and marking, and perhaps often, too, in form of wing, has taken place, and that within comparatively modern times--let us say during the distribution of a species which required protection over a large continent, or since the last breaking up of an immune species into local species. Various facts prove this; above all, the circumstance that it is often only the females which exhibit this protective mimicry; and that one and the same species may mimic a different immune species in different areas, but always the one occurring abundantly in that area, and so on. Definite examples will make this clearer, and I will only say in advance that, since the discovery of Bates, numerous cases of mimicry in butterflies have been found, not only in South America, but in all tropical countries which have a rich Lepidopteran fauna. And it is not only between the Heliconiidæ and the Pieridæ that such relations have been evolved; many much-persecuted, unprotected species of different families everywhere mimic species which are rejected on account of their nauseous taste, and these, too, belonging to different families. The Heliconiidæ are a purely American group, but in the Old World and in Australia their place is taken by the three great families of Danaides, Euplœides, and Acræides, since, as it seems, they all taste unpleasantly, and are rejected by all, or at least by most, of the insectivorous birds. Numerous species of the genus _Danais_ (Pl. I, Fig. 8), _Amauris_ (Pl. I, Fig. 5), _Euplœa_ (Pl. III, Fig. 25, 27), and _Acræa_ (Pl. II, Fig. 2), and also many species of _Papilio_ and other genera, enjoy the advantage of unpleasant taste, if not even of poisonousness; they are, therefore, secure from pursuit, and are, in consequence, much mimicked by palatable butterflies.