Birth In Relation to their Prey. 55 



517. March 29. — D ate readily five Precis cehrene and at 

 once threw away a dead one. Illustrates necessity for care 

 in providing the right material for experiment ! 



518. March 30. — Each ate readily a Chara.res hmitus (large, 

 heavy-bodied, fruit-eating butterfly) after the usual softening. 

 D took three more from the forceps, but dropped each. E 

 picked them up and ate them, as also a fourth, with evident 

 relish. D accepted the next, went to much trouble in 

 softening it, and then presented it to E, who ate it after 

 further mastication. D found room for the next himself, 

 refused a migratory locust, but accepted another C. hrutus, 

 softened it up very thoroughly, and ended by separating the 

 thorax from the abdomen. He deliberately passed the 

 abdomen up to E (on a perch above him), and, when E had 

 finished eating it, leaned over, picked up the thorax now 

 lying on the ground some distance away, and handed this 

 too to E, who ate it readily. The next was also taken by D, 

 but ungratei'ully snatched from her almost at once by E,and 

 by her eaten, after the usual softening. 



I handed a Papilio lyccus to E. "Wliile she was hesitating 

 D came up, snatched it away, and ate it, also a second. I 

 offered four more direct to E, but D intercepted each (E 

 holding back with her bill straight up in the air out of fear 

 or deference). Instead of eating them D leaned over each 

 time and dropped the butterfly on the floor, all on the same 

 spot. When he saw that I had no more to offer he at once 

 descended and battering each in turn ate it. Only now, 

 when D had definitely finished, did E descend and get a 

 thorax or two that had been broken off' and left. 



This assertion of authority by D (for that was what I 

 could not but take it for) was A'ery interesting, coming as it 

 did on the top of an impudent snatching away of a butterfly 

 from him by E. E's change of attitude to one of respect 

 followed the snatching away from her of the Papilio lyceus 

 by D, or perhaps was indicated in her hesitation over its 

 acceptance. Possibly some anger was shown in D^s manner 

 that was unnoticed by E, but escaped myself. Tiie calm 

 placing of each butterfly on the floor, whence E might easily 



