46 Mr. C. F. M. Swynnerton on 



" And then the troubles began to brew." Four minutes 

 after his last acceptance A pointed his bill, wide open, 

 downwards and commenced to strain. A brown fluid like 

 tobacco-juice exuded in some quantity. This was followed 

 by a small pellet composed of two wings o'i Danaida together 

 with a mass of legs and smaller particles that perhaps 

 represented the soft parts of the body. C then followed suit 

 with exactly the same symptoms. Both birds looked the 

 picture of dejection and misery, and kept on straining at 

 short intervals without bringing anything up. A finally 

 brought up another mass which I did not at once examine, 

 but which presumably included the Acrcea acara and some 

 remnants of the Danaida. B had not been sick up to the 

 conclusion of the experiment, but, like the others, looked 

 dejected. 



I next offered A and C another Danaida with wings. 

 They both refused it several times in succession. After the 

 first one or two offerings, they would, each time it appeared 

 through the crack, both start rubbin^ their beaks against 

 the sides of the cage and on their perches with every sign 

 of disgust, looking at me all the time as much as to say 

 " That isn't nice." Two or three times they reached up and 

 (still with an eye on me .!) nearly closed their bills on the 

 Danaida, but flung their heads violently to one side before 

 actually doing so, and reverted to the bill-rubbing perform- 

 ance. It was an exceedingly clear piece of bird-language. 



I next offered a D. clirysippus with the wings removed. 

 Both birds examined it closely and refused to touch it. I 

 offered an excellent mimic of the Danaida — namely, female 

 Hypolimnas misippiis, with wings. It was refused by both 

 birds, without tasting, several times. I then offered it 

 without wings. The difference in colour between the two 

 butterflies, even with wings removed, is but slight. The 

 Hypolimnas is a little stouter and " Nymphaline," and there 

 are one or two differences in detail — the white spots, for 

 instance, extending conspicuously on to the underside of the 

 abdomen in the mimic, — and there is a somewhat different 

 appearance in the external '' texture." A examined the insect 



