92 Mr. C^. F. M. Swynnerton on 



for insects that are not thus defended. Actually, both 

 things are done, and in the majority of cases it will depend 

 on the bird's state of hunger which course will be chosen. 

 A bird that is nearer repletion will not trouble to break up 

 a dung-beetle or attack a wasp — however delightful it may 

 be to eat it, if someone else will do it for him! — will often 

 when a little hungrier attack with the greatest energy and 

 skill; and the methods of attack that different birds apply 

 to the different defences are of the greatest interest. Some 

 received illustration in the experiments I have described 

 above. 



Take stings. The Babbler in experiment 562 showed 

 how completely helpless a powerful wasp may be against 

 even a weak-billed bird that has once got it on the ground. 

 Attack after attack was piled in, giving no time for recover}-; 

 yet each attack was crisp and brief, so that no opportunity 

 of using the sting was given. Bulbuls [Pycnonotus) attacked 

 similarly, as would, no doubt, any of the birds — as Tele- 

 2)honus — that habitually batter their prey on the ground, or, 

 being willing to attack wasps, are, nevertheless, too weak in 

 the bill to do so with any success aerially. Stronger and 

 longer billed birds attack the wasp they are hungry enough 

 for when and where they can get it, but seize by the thorax 

 and pinch as they seize. If the pinch fails — that is, if the 

 thorax is not at once crushed — they let go again, unless the 

 insect has so short a reach that they have nothing to fear 

 from the sting. If, on the other hand, the pinch succeeds, 

 the bird throws off all caution, at once either swallows the 

 prey or brings into operation his usual methods for reducing 

 any insect to an edible condition. I have already described 

 (Journals. A. O.U., Dec. 1913, p. 97) the quite similar methods 

 employed against a large snake by Ground-Hornbills — the 

 attacks directed exclusively at the head, the latter's imme- 

 diate release every time the " pinch " failed, and the 

 abandonment of caution directly the head crunched. 



The Babbler's methods as against hardness and gloss were 

 in no degree less interesting. Exj)eriments 555, 559, 561, 

 565, 567, 568, and 573 all bear on this point, though the 



