42 ]\rr. C, F. M. Swynnorton on 



failed to deter them. The methods employed were quite 

 interesting. 



The rest of the experiment ran as follows : — A ate a 

 Precis archesia (wet-season) and a P. artaa-ia, C three P. ar- 

 taxia. The last she eagerly swallowed down without even 

 waiting to give it the usual preliminaiy tasting, and both she 

 and A at once eagerly stretched up to the crack for the next 

 that might he coming. A secured it and, having tasted it 

 handed it over to C, who eagerly swallowed both it and 

 another. She then ate two Precis natalensis (wet-season). 

 A third was taken by A and passed on by him to C. C held 

 it for a few seconds in the point of her bill without swallowing 

 it, whereupon A again seized the butterfly with apparent 

 impatience atCs dallying, extracted it after a short struggle 

 from C's grip and swallowed it himself ; then accepted and 

 ate two more P. natalensis without troubling to offer them 

 to C. Each bird then ate a Belenois mesentina and A a 

 Painted Lady {Pyrameis cardiii). C took a Papilio ango- 

 laniis, but delayed, as before, to eat it, and A, as before, 

 grew impatient and suddenly snatched away the thorax ; 

 C promptly swallowed the abdomen, and turning on A re- 

 annexed the thorax and swallowed it too, then ate two more 

 of the Papilios in quick succession. A Papilio lyceus (large, 

 black, with blue diagonal stripe) that C next accepted was 

 taken from me by A,and by him tasted and at once swallowed. 

 C quickly ate a P. angolanus and a Bi/hlia. A took a Terias 

 (small, bright yellow butterfly) twice in the point of his bill, 

 and each time threw it away without bothering to taste it. 

 It w^as picked up by B, who was all the time at the bottom 

 of the cage — the more timid of the three birds, — and dropped, 

 picked up again, and when I saw it last, several minutes 

 later, was still being held in the point of the bill uneaten. 



Apart from this rejection of the Terias and the hesitation 

 to eat it shown by B, the main interest of the experiment 

 lies once more in the attitude of A to C. A was quite 

 prepared to offer food to C, but said " If you are not hungry 

 enough to swallow it promply, I am ! You had better give 

 it back again I " The Lyceus incident was probably in 



