WARNING COLOEATION. 163 



Pastor took it away from it, but left it ; the thrush (or perhaps 

 another one) then recovered it, and, as already mentioned, 

 swallowed it. 



Three speckled brownish and whitish slugs were refused by 

 a magpie and jackdaw; another three were eaten without any 

 signs of hesitation by a woodhen. 



A small black slug was eaten by a Glossy starling after 

 much rubbing on the ground. 



On another day a brown slug was offered to a Laughing 

 Jackass and eaten, though after some time. 



The larva of the small Ermine moth ( Ypomoneuta padella) 

 has been a great pest in London during the past summer, 

 disfiguring with its webs and defoliating the trees; it will feed 

 on almost any tree or shrub. Mr. Jeiiner Weir found that the 

 " larvte only which ventured beyond the protection of the webs, 

 were devoured by birds, which " appear very much to dislike 

 the web sticking to their beaks." Mr. Poulton considers that 

 this instance favours Mr. Wallace's converse suggestion that 

 inconspicuous caterpillars which evade their enemies (in this 

 case by a web) will be found to be palatable. Mr. Finn and I 

 found that the caterpillars of this moth were not invariably 

 palatable. Lacerta galloti ate several readily, but Zonurus 

 cordylus, though it ate one, bit and refused others. 



It may be convenient briefly to tabulate the results of these 

 experiments for purposes of comparison with the results 

 obtained by Weisrnann, Jenner, Weir, Poulton, and Butler. 



The names of insects (and other animals) supposed, on 

 account of their colour, to be edible are printed in italics, with 

 the exception of those that have a sting, or mimic insects with 

 a sting. 



The tables would clearly have more significance if a larger 

 number of larvte had been experimented with. 



