Birds in Relation to their Prey. 87 



finding that there was below the wings yet another skin as 

 tough as the first, the Babbler abandoned the insect entirely 

 and refused to accept it when re-offered. But she eagerly 

 attacked and ate some small grasshoppers which I placed in 

 the cage. 



1910. 562. Jan. 9.— Method of dealing with a wasp. 

 The Babbler evidently realised that a large wasp, Dielis 

 bifasciata var. mansueta, was not a thing to be played with, 

 but showed the greatest energy and dexterity in dealing with 

 it. The method was that of Ft/cnonotns layardi, but far more 

 skilfully applied, and the pause after each attack was so 

 infinitesimal that the wasp was allowed no opportunity to 

 recover itself. 



I first offered an insect from which I had removed both 

 wings on one side. The bird at once snatched it from the 

 forceps, threw it down, pounced on it, worried it on the 

 ground for a second with the greatest violence, let go, again 

 paused, worried and let go, and so on. Finally, the head 

 came off and was swallowed, after which the bird completely 

 changed her tactics and proceeded to break the insect up by 

 her usual methods, pounding the thorax with the sharp 

 points of her slightly separated mandibles, holding it down 

 with one foot while she dragged at it with her bill, and so 

 on. She finally ate the whole of it. 



I now introduced a lively wasp with the full use of its 

 wings, in order to see whether it would not escape between 

 the attacks. Nothing of the kind. The bird never gave it 

 a second's leisure, but piled in attack after attack — each 

 short and crisp in itself — with lightning rapidity until the 

 insect was completely exhausted, when she once more 

 changed her tactics and proceeded to break it up and eat 

 it in the most leisurely fashion. 



A wasp once brought to ground by such a bird would have 

 little chance of escape. 



563. Jan. 9 (later in the day). — Disinclination for even dead 

 wasps when fuller. After a good feed of various grass- 

 hop{)ers, &c., she pulled about a little and abandoned in turn 

 a black wasp at present unidentified, a Papilio angolanuis 



