1912.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 319 



2. Young moorhens found the conspicuously colored burnet moths 



{Zygoma filipendula) distasteful, the obnoxious part being the 

 wings, for the body from which the wings were removed was 

 eaten with apparent relish while the severed wings were rejected 

 (p. 42). 



3. Lvmbricus faztidus was refused at first, as were all other earth- 



worms for some time afterwards. Later all were eaten. 



4. All birds tested avoided woolly-bear caterpillars (Arctia caja). 



5. Jays, ducks, and moorhens ate caterpillars of the tiger moths, 



Nemeophila plantaginus and Chelonia villica, while chicks, 

 pheasants, and guinea-fowls found them distasteful (p. 43). 



6. Jays ate pupae of Abraxas grossulariata (p. 43), an insect refused 



by most of the captive animals to which it has been offered. 



7. One jay ate a larva of Phalera bucephala, which another jay and 



duckling and chicks refused (p. 43). 



8. Soldier-beetles and ladybirds were avoided (p. 43). 



In No. 2, intrinsic distastefulness is not shown; it is the dry, scaly 

 wings that are objectionable. Nos. 3, 5, and 7 give evidence for 

 both sides of the question, and No. 6 is inconsistent with most other 

 experiments on the same insect. 



The evanescence of some associations concerning food are shown 

 by the following experiment: Bits of orange peel were offered to a 

 young chick that had learned to eat yolk of egg; they were refused, 

 as were also bits of yolk substituted immediately afterward. Sub- 

 sequently the yolk was again tested and accepted (p. 41). 



Another test indicates that in some cases taste cannot be the 

 criterion upon which choice is made. "While small worms are 

 picked up with avidity, large worms are left alone by quite young 

 birds and often evoke the alarm note. None of the chicks on the 

 fifth day dared go near a particularly large worm. Bits of red-brown 

 worsted, somewhat resembling worms, were seized with eagerness 

 and eaten with surprising avidity so long as they were not more than 

 a couple of inches long. Of a four-inch bit the chicks were afraid, 

 until one bolder than the rest, seized it, whereupon the other chased 

 him for the prize till he escaped to a secluded corner and swallowed 

 it "(p. 50). 



An unusual experience with customary food may lead to its rejec- 

 tion, as decisively as if it were " nauseous" and " warningly colored." 

 "Pheasants and partridges, when they seized a worm for the first 

 time, shook it and dashed it against the ground; one of them did so, 

 indeed, with such vigor that he shook himself over, and thereafter 

 could not for some time be induced so much as to look at a worm" 

 (p. 51). "A little pheasant which would run to my hand for wasp 



