Birds in Relation to their Pre)/. 73 



must, i£ lie knew any butterflies (and he showed that he 

 knew them well) have known Danaida, the commonest of 

 all. I myself put it down to the bad light, and thought it 

 extraordinary that the bird made as few mistakes as he did. 

 On the other hand, the attempt to talie the Mylotlivis may 

 have been intentional, and to be accounted for by the stimu- 

 lative effect that the eating of several, highly pleasant insects 

 (here three skippers, a Painted Lady, and a Precis) so often 

 exercises. 



Comments. Assuming (us I thought was the case) that the 

 bird was nearly hungry enough for Ypthima, but not for the 

 butterflies refused just before it, we get from the experiment 

 the following rough order of preference : — 



(1) Three species of Precis {ehjiva, tugela, and clelia) ; 

 Pyrameis cardui; Ilamanumida dcedalus; Pseudacrtea lucretia 

 (if recognized as itself) and JSeptis saclava, and probably 

 Crenis boisduvali; these amongst Nymphalines. Two Pierines 

 — Catopsilia florella and probably Lenceronia argia (^ . A 

 Papilio [P. lyceus). And five skippers (if the last of them was 

 not eaten merely through the stimulative effect of its pre- 

 decessors), namely, Baoris fatuellus, Platylesches moritili, 

 Padraona zeno, Rhopalocampta forestan, and Gegenes 

 hottentota. 



(2) Ypthima near impura (probably) . 



(3) Mylothris yulei, Belenois severina, and Terias hrigitta. 

 AVith (2) and (3) may be bracketed Acrcea areca, the two 



Danaines Amaiiris albimaculata and Danaida chrysippns, 

 and the three Pierines, Mylothris agathina ,$ and M. rueppelli 

 and Nychitona medusa. Also (if recognised as itself, which 

 is doubtful) the small brown Satyrine Henotesia perspicaa. 

 Meat — preferred to (Jape gooseberies. 



The whole of these " placings,'^ including that of the 

 Ypthima, are simply confirmatory of those obtained from 

 many other birds, and, in so far as they consisted of many 

 acceptances and refusals without tasting, show that the bird 

 was in the habit of attacking butterflies before he was 

 captured. This is really the most interesting result of the 

 experiment. The trial of the piece of earth was interestino- 



