Jjinh 171 Jxehilion to tlieir Pi'ci/- ^1 



it3 exact " placing " is uncertain, as the state of the bird s 

 appetite was not definitely ascertained. 



551. Sept. 28. — Had been feeding not long before on 

 termites and various Orthoptera. Tasted and battered well, 

 and finally rejected, a Terias regularis, a Miicalesis canijvna, 

 and a Ji'eptis agatha. It was likely that none of these were 

 liked better than the grasshoppers. 



552. Sept. 30. — Had again been feeding, and had left 

 several h'gh-grade insects uneaten. She tasted and at once 

 rejected a Papilio angolanus, and picked up and pulled about 

 for quite a long time a Leuceronia thalussina, but finally 

 abandoned it. I removed its one wing and reoffered it, when 

 the bird snapped the thorax from the forceps, crushed and 

 ato it, then refused to have anything to do with the abdomen 

 or to taste a wingless Precis sesamus (black and blue dry- 

 season form of naiuleiisis). I think, she, perhaps, regretted 

 the eating of the Leucoronia's thorax. 



553. Oct. 1. — I have already described this experiment in 

 full in a paper on " The Defences of G haraxes" road before 

 the Entonijlogical Society in May. Briefly, it amounted to 

 this. The Babbler chased with persistence, but lack of success, 

 owing to the breakage of the wings when seized, two of these 

 very powerful fruit-eating butterflies. Finally, in the case 

 of the second (a C. hriitus), " the bird darted out its foot as 

 the butterfiy glanced past close to the ground, and, seizing it 

 most skilfully in her claws, pinned it thereby to the ground, 

 at once [)ulled off its head, and lost no time in disabling it 

 further by pecking and pecking at the thorax with the 

 greatest vigour. The whole butterfly then received a great 

 pecking, battering, and crushing, but the Babbler, while it 

 considerably reduced the size, failed to remove the wings, 

 and finally abandoned the butterfly. I kept the bird for 

 some time without food, but, though it renewed its attacks on 

 the C/iarudX'S more than once, its attempts to eat it were 

 ineffectual." 



From an entomological point of view, the experiment is 

 interesting as illustrating the defences in virtue of which 

 the larger Charaxes are so greatly mimicked by smaller 



t; 



