MISCELLANEOUS. 229" 



In the instance of the Madras bulbul recorded by Mr. Morris, the mimicry 

 whs the result of education. The instance of mimicry by a wild bird which Mr. 

 Aitken gave at page 30 of the 1st volume of this Journal was by the allied but 

 perfectly distinct "green bulbul" (Phyllomis Malabaricus or Jerdoni). I have 

 not before heard of an instance of a wild Madras bulbul imitating the natural 

 notes of his jungle associates. But that Pycnonotus keemorrhous has the faculty 

 of mimicry is clear from Mr. Morris's paper. As in his instance the develop- 

 ment of that faculty was apparently induced by the effort to repeat the con- 

 stantly reiterated utterances of a companion bird, so in mine it would seem that 

 the note incessantly sounded by a neighbour all through the hot weather had taken 

 such a hold of the bulbul's mind that he was driven almost unconsciously to 

 repeat it. The maddening monotony of that "took-took" keeping him 

 awake after tiffin on hot Sunday afternoons may well have so acted on the poor 

 bulbul's nerves or brain as to drive him to emit a similar sound, and it is hard 

 to see for what other reason he should have attempted it in a wild state, with 

 none to instruct or applaud him, and with a far more pleasing note of his own. 



My second instance of mimicry must be of very frequent occurrence, for it is one 

 of natural protective mimicry in the life history of every individual larva and pupa 

 of a common species of butterfly. But as I have never yet seen any description 

 of it, I think it may possibly not yet have come under the observation of any 

 entomologist, and as it is certainly curious and interesting, I venture to offer a 

 description of it. 



On the 1st August I found on the leaves of a sweet lime tree in ray garden 

 four small caterpillars lately hatched. Feeding, as they did, on the upper side of the 

 leaf, they were of course fully exposed to the sight of every passing bird. Being 

 moreover of slow and sluggish habits, these caterpillars, so exposed to the sight of 

 their enemies, were driven to artifice to elude their observation. They adopted 

 the unsavoury one of pretending to be bird-droppings. In every instance the 

 imitation was so exact that at the distance of a foot and a half I found it impos- 

 sible to tell the caterpillar from a bit of the solid excrement of some small bird. 

 It was bluntly rounded at the head end, tapering rather suddenly towards the tail, 

 of a dark gray colour, with an irregular broadish band of dirty white running 

 diagonally across the body. It retained this appearance so long as it remained of 

 a size to carry on the deception successfully, but when about J in. in length, and 

 too large to hope to be any longer mistaken for what it at first pretended to be, it 

 beo-an to imitate the tree on which it was feeding. Here again the imitation was 

 most exact. The back arched up, like a folded leaf. The dark gray turned to the 

 dark green of the foliage, and the single broad white band became two much 

 contracted markings of brown delicately streaked with yellow, like the bark of the 

 twio-s, while a still narrower line of the same appeared transversely across the back, 

 just above the head- The green continued to expand and the brown to contract, 

 till the caterpillar was about an inch and a half in length, when it was of a 

 beautiful shaded green all over its upper side, and pink to ash colour beneath. 

 It then attached itself firmly by the tail end to a twig with its head upwards, 

 at an angle of about 30°, steadied itself by two almost invisible gossamer threads 

 from its head to another twig above, and in that position assumed its chrysalis 



