84 Mr. C. F. M. Swynnerton on 



battering the latter against a perch. She then threw the 

 abdomen away, however, wiped her bill vigorously against 

 the perch, and refused to have anything further to do with 

 any portion of the moth. 



I considered that M. yulei was preferred to the moth, 

 though after a little more food the bird refused both and 

 also a Papilio angolanus. 



558. Nov. 16. — The ant, Dori/lus (/erstaeckeri, is always 

 eaten by this bird, aj)parently with relish, whenever it 

 enters its cage. To-day I offered her both this species and 

 another common ant, Mt/rmiccuia e>imenoides, and each was 

 readily eaten. The bird then pulled a wingless Fapilio 

 angolanus about for a time and finally abandoned it, but 

 made a determined onslauoht on the large, vinegar-scented, 

 yellow and blue-black ichneumon, Ospri/nehotns flavipes, 

 which it would seize by a leg or a wing and rub on the 

 ground (with the "worrying" action of a dog thut has seized 

 a rat) until the limb came off. Finally, when the insect was 

 not only disembowelled but thoroughly "pulped" through 

 being battered and run through the mandibles, it was swal- 

 lowed with no sign of dislike — an insect that is placed as low 

 as Mylothris by others of my birds. The Babbler even went 

 on to pick up each severed leg and wing, and, after running 

 it through her bill and worrying it on the ground, swallowed 

 it, though the nourishment it contained must have been 

 nearly nil\ She then accepted a wingless white Pierine, 

 Catopsilia florella, and worried it for a time, but ended by 

 abandoning if,, transferred a wingless Catacroptera cloantha 

 (Nymphaline) to her foot and thence ate it piecemeal with 

 apparent relish ; refused, then just took in her bill and 

 dropped, the C. florella reoffered ; nibbled slightly in the 

 point of her bill and swallowe 1 with apparent relish a Heno- 

 tesia perspicua; pulled about and diswinged the Noctuid 

 moth, Sphingomorpha cldorea^ ate it with some aviditj^ ; then 

 with stimulated appetite turned to the previously-rejected 

 C. florella, now lying on the floor of the cage, and ate that, 

 too — once more, however, rejecting the P. angolamis. She 

 then ate readily two Pentatomid bugs, Bagrada hilaris, 



