a Pair of Tame Groiind-IIombills. 91 



played with it and threw it right away : and it was only at 

 the fifth or sixth attempt that she succeeded in eating it." 

 This is not the only instance I have seen of a probable 

 attempt at dissuasion. A Wood-hoopoe (Irrisor erytliro- 

 rhynclius. Lath.) that I possessed in 1909 went to great 

 trouble to dissuade a younger bird in the same cage from 

 eating a Danais c/wi/slppus, L. 



Grasshoppers of various species certainly form a very 

 hirge proportion of their food. Frequently they leap into 

 the air just too late to catch one of these insects (or a 

 butterfly), and on many other occasions I have seen wary 

 grasshoppers baffle them repeatedly by springing away each 

 time just before the bird came within range : but a very 

 large proportion seem to be detected and caught before they 

 spring at all. A method that Biddy, I think^ in particular, 

 is very expert in, is that of a monkey, a lemur, or a mantis — 

 a slow and stealthy ap[)roach crowned by a lightning-like 

 nipping of the insect at the very last. I have also seen 

 it used successfully, against resting butterflies, by a wild 

 Dryosco'pus gitttatus, Hartl., and it is certainly a very 

 effective method. The two Hornbills are best at it if they 

 first see the prey when it is within reach, the slow approach 

 being then made simply by the bird's head and neck, held 

 near the ground and commonly on one side. At any rate, 

 when I have actually seen them detect insects at some 

 distance away and go up to them, the approach {})y the 

 whole bird) has sometimes been so hasty as to frighten the 

 insect. The following was a case in point : — 



"Jj^7n7 30^/;, 1911.— Shortly afterwards Pat and Biddy 

 arrived on the scene and commenced to systematically search 

 the fallen guavas along the entire length of both sections 

 of the row. It was quite evidently a thing they had done 

 before. Yet even now Pat was evidently by no means sure 

 which was the vital end of a butterfly : for, watching care- 

 fully, I saw him stalk up quickly to a Charao-es brutus 

 natalens/'s, Rothsch. & Jord., utterly absorbed in its feast, 

 and seize it by the ' eye-spots ' of the hindwing. To make 

 quite sure T extracted the pieces of wini;-, still in the tip of 



