My life : a record of events and opinions - Wallace-online.org

—LYELL AND DARWIN 229" My dear Wallace,Bates was quite right ;you are the manto apply to in a difficulty. I never heard anythingmore ingenious than your suggestion, and I hope youmay be able to prove it true. That is a splendid factabout the white moths ; it warms one's very blood tosee a theory thus almost proved to be true."I then mentioned the subject at a meeting of theEntomological Society ; and in the following yearexperiments were made by two gentlemen whichproved clearly that while green or brown caterpillarswere greedily eaten by all insect-eating birds, thosewhich were gaudily coloured or were hairy, andusually exposed themselves on the plants on whichthey fed in the daytime, were rejected by almostall the birds and usually by lizards as well. Theprinciple of " warning coloration," as it is termed, isnow generally admitted as being widely prevalent innature.In the year 1870 Mr. A. W. Bennett read a paperbefore Section D of the British Association at Liverpool,entitled " The Theory of Natural Selection froma Mathematical Point of View," and this paper wasprinted in full in Nature of November 10, 1870. Tothis I replied on November 17, and my reply sopleased Mr. Darwin that he at once wrote to me asfollows :" Down, November 22."My dear Wallace," I must ease myself by writing a few wordsto say how much I and all in this house admire yourarticle in Nature. You are certainly an unparalleledmaster in lucidly stating a case and in arguing.