Has any man tried eating one of these butterflies? That was what Professor Wheeler did to test another supposed case of the same sort. Here the insect was a large and very conspicuously coloured day-flying moth. This moth has not an understudy, as far as is known, but it was supposed, then, to be an example of what is called “warning coloration,” that is to say, its bright colours were believed to be flourished in the face of any and every animal it might meet with, in order to warn them that it was not good to eat. Otherwise some bird, or lizard, or other creature might kill it before it had time to find out that it wasn’t. For instance, had it been just a brown moth—there are so many of these and most of them good to eat—how was it to be distinguished from others? But such a get-up as _that_—black and white wings and a black and orange body—once seen it was not to be forgotten. It was like the red flag at a rifle range, warning one off, and this is the theory of warning coloration. So Professor Wheeler, as he rode through the deserts of Wyoming, with the moths all about him, resolved to test this theory which had lived for a long time, and still goes on living a good deal on trust. “He dismounted from his horse and proceeded to masticate the body of one of the moths. To his astonishment the little flavour that it contained was mild and pleasant, one may almost say nut-like.”[111] Perhaps it may be thought that, on the “_de gustibus_” principle, what is pleasant to a human being might be disagreeable to a bird or a lizard; but Professor Wheeler tried another experiment. “Another day-flying moth, common in our eastern States, has deep black wings, each adorned with a pair of large yellow spots, and there is a dash of orange on its legs. It certainly cannot be a mimetic species (if it were, of course, one would not expect it to be nasty) as there is no other day-flying moth which could serve as its model. Several of these moths were given to some lizards that had previously been well fed on house-flies and could not, therefore, be very hungry. The moths were seized at once, and devoured, with evident signs of relish.”[111]