An essay that excited special attention was that on Mimicry.  The two on Birds’ Nests brought forth some rather heated correspondence from amateur naturalists, to which Wallace replied either by adducing confirmation of the facts stated, or by thanking them for the information they had given him.

With reference to the paper on Mimicry, it is interesting to note that the hypothesis therein adopted was first suggested by H.W.  Bates, Wallace’s friend and fellow-traveller in South America.  The essay under this title dealt with the subject in a most fascinating manner, and was probably the first to arouse widespread interest in this aspect of natural science.

The next eight years saw the production of many important and valuable works, amongst which the “Geographical Distribution of Animals” (1876) occupies the chief place.  This work, though perhaps the least known to the average reader, was considered by Wallace to be the most important scientific work he ever attempted.  From references in letters written during his stay in the Malay Archipelago, it is clear that the subject had a strong attraction for him, and formed a special branch of study and observation many years before he began to work it out systematically in writing.  His decision to write the book was the outcome of a suggestion made to him by Prof.  A. Newton and Dr. Sclater about 1872.  In addition to having already expressed his general views on this subject in various papers and articles, he had, after careful consideration, come to adopt Dr. Sclater’s division of the earth’s surface into six great zoological regions, which he found equally applicable to birds, mammalia, reptiles, and other great divisions; while at the same time it helped to explain the apparent contradictions in the distribution of land animals.  Some years later he wrote: 

In whatever work I have done I have always aimed at systematic arrangement and uniformity of treatment throughout.  But here the immense extent of the subject, the overwhelming mass of detail, and above all the excessive diversities in the amount of knowledge of the different classes of animals, rendered it quite impossible to treat all alike.  My preliminary studies had already satisfied me that it was quite useless to attempt to found any conclusions on those groups which were comparatively little known, either as regards the proportion of species collected and described, or as regards their systematic classification.  It was also clear that as the present distribution of animals is necessarily due to their past distribution, the greatest importance must be given to those groups whose fossil remains in the more recent strata are the most abundant and the best known.  These considerations led me to limit my work in its detailed systematic groundwork, and study of the principles and law of distribution, to the mammalia and birds, and to apply the principles thus arrived at to an explanation of the distribution of other groups, such as reptiles, fresh-water fishes, land and fresh-water shells, and the best-known insect Orders.