150 ANIMAL COLORATION. 



are distinguished by brilliant colour, this experiment would 

 have been surely quoted as an instance of the hesitation and 

 reluctance with which a bird, probably compelled by hunger, 

 satisfied its appetite. The instance shows the pitfalls 

 which surround the path of those who wish to deduce 

 theories from experiments of this kind, which are necessarily 

 made in very great ignorance of bird psychology or even 

 physiology. The same larva was readily eaten by marmosets, 

 but treated very doubtfully by a large American monkey (the 

 marmosets and monkeys had been recently fed). The larvae 

 were also readily eaten, without any preparatory pinching, by 

 the rose-coloured Pastor. On the contrary, the Australian 

 plover, pinched the larva carefully before swallowing it. 

 Another kind of larva, with which I am not acquainted, of a 

 brown colour with black marks ranged segmentally along the 

 sides, were eaten by the Great Spotted woodpecker, after a 

 very little pinching. These larvre were well pinched, but finally 

 rejected, by a Toucan ; a small individual was taken by one of 

 the " Hang Nests " in the parrot house (Icterus chrysocephalus)', 

 it was pinched to a pulp and held in the bill for a long time ; 

 occasionally the bird put it down and pecked at it ; it was 

 finally swallowed. The same species was eaten after pinching 

 well by the Motmot and by Ht/pocolius, A number of other 

 birds took the caterpillars with varying degree of pinching and 

 pecking before swallowing them. 



The common wood-louse was rejected by the woodpecker : 

 this seems to be a very remarkable fact, because wood-lice must 

 be almost the commonest creatures met with by the wood- 

 pecker under normal circumstances. That they are not dis- 

 tasteful to many birds has been shown by other observers ; 

 and we found that they were eaten at once by magpies, and 

 after a few pinches by a piping crow. 



