52 Mr. C. F. M. Swynnerton on 



always seems to me a little more pungent and ready for use 

 than the same smell in the black-and-6i/^Amaurises. I may 

 say that Amauris generally is not a genus that Irrisor would 

 be likely to meet with much in its hunting-grounds round 

 Chirinda — they are, in the main, forest-insects. At any rate, 

 the Hoopoe attacked this one at once with the greatest 

 eagerness, and after two or three failures succeeded in 

 seizing it by the thorax, but at once threw it down again 

 disabled. During the next few minutes she again picked 

 the butterfly up three times, but each time, on tasting it, at 

 once threw it down again, her attitude being that of being 

 puzzled at not finding it good. Possibly she confused its 

 appearance with that of some pleasanter black-and-white 

 butterfly known to her. She then left it alone altogether 

 and proceeded to nibble at the bases of Papilio lyccus wings 

 lying in the cage. 



An Acrcea caldarena (a small reddish species with black 

 wing-tips and the usual poppy-flavoured juice) was seized 

 without difficulty by the thorax, but at once dropped, the 

 bird retiring to the far end of the perch. Half an hour 

 later both the Acrcva and the Amauris were still uneaten, so 

 I placed both in a conspicuous position in the wire of the 

 cage and returned in an hour. The Amauris had now been 

 moved, showing further trial, but was otherwise intact, and 

 the Acrcea had been stripped of wings. Abdomen missing. 

 No pellet had been brought up. 



I then offered a second live Acroia caldarena. The bird at 

 once seized it by the thorax, bit it two or three times, and 

 dropped it, retiring to the other end of the perch with a 

 disappointed air. A larva of the fine black and yellow 

 Swallow-tail, Papilio demodocns, so destructive to orange- 

 trees, had been offered shortly after the first Acrcea caldarena. 

 The bird at once seized it by the anal end and began to bang 

 it about. Transferring her hold to the other end she caused 

 the red filaments to be suddenly extruded with the usual 

 strong bay-leaf smell. She hesitated distinctly for two or 

 three seconds, evidently much struck, but then went on with 



