88 Mr. (\ F. M, Swjnnerton on 



with and without wings (a small portion was the second 

 time eaten), and a Mycalesis camjyina, readily ate a beetle- 

 larva found in termite nests, pulled about and rejected the 

 3II0W and black-banded wasp (Dielis mansiieta), refused 

 ithoiit tasting, persistently, a " woolly-bear " cater]iil]ar 

 (probably j^r-iiid), the urticating hairs of which come out 

 easily, and then proceeded to make a great feed of small 

 worker-termites. 



Each wasp in this experiment was killed, or practically 

 so, just before offering by the slight crushing of its thorax 

 with my forceps. The idea was to arrive at their /bor/- value 

 in the bird's estimation without the complicating factor 

 introduced by the presence of an active sting. They are 

 obviously not amongst the bird's favourites. 



564. Jan. 11. Treatment of a millijiede. Hungry. 

 Readily ate a small blue-black Phytophagous beetle, common 

 now on the outskirts of the Chirinda Forest; pulled about 

 and abandoned a larger yellow and green one; readily ate, 

 after crushing it well, a second of the blue-black species ; 

 pulled about for a very long time, constantly rubbing it 

 against the perch to remove the yellow juice, an adult 

 " lady-bird " (^Epilachna hirta), and finally swallowed it ; 

 snatched the next from the forceps, but threw it away ; 

 battered and ate the beetle, Lagria villosa; tasled and 

 rejected the yellow and green species abandoned before, and 

 very readily ate an adult ant-lion (^Formicales hucospilus). 

 She then ate several grasshoppers, and, retiring to a perch, 

 went (literally) to sleep. I now placed a freshly captured 

 scarlet millipede {Spirololms sp.) close up to the bars in 

 front of her. About three seconds later the bird awoke 

 with a start, flinging herself back as the Shrike had done, 

 and retiring quickly to a back perch. She at once recovered 

 herself, howev^er, and, snatching the millipede from the 

 forceps, battered and rubbed it on the ground and perches 

 for sorae time, as though to make it exhaust its pungent 

 vapour. She even ate a small portion of it, but abandoned 

 the rest (now broken into three fragments), and refused to 

 touch it on my reoffering it. She then readily ate a Mi/ca- 

 lesis campina, showing she was hungry enough for that, and 



