52



Dr. A. G. Butler,



mixture, half an orange, a few grapes, and one or two meal¬

worms. The bird seemed weak ; and, until it had taken a bath,

was unable to fly up to the lower perch (perhaps 18 inches from

the sand-tray), later it managed this feat, aud thence easily flew

to the upper perch on the opposite side of the cage.


Watching this interesting bird, I quickly came to the same

conclusion as Mr. Harper; the bird’s actions were, in every

respect, those of a Bulbul rather than a Starling; it moved even

on its perches by (lateral) hops : when eating it pierced the fruit

with slightly opened mandibles, the tongue exserted and then

retracted ; the bill closing upon the enclosed fragment of fruit,

then withdrawn and almost immediately plunged in again for

the next mouthful. This action is exactly opposite to that of a

Starling, which always pierces with closed bill, then opens the

mandibles to divide the food and afterwards picks up the small

fragment separated from the bulk of its food. The habit of

dividing up fruit, or tough portions of food, such as pips, bread

or biscuit, is characteristic not only of the Sturnidce but of the

Icteridce .


Another Starling - like characteristic which is wholly

wanting in the Spotted-wing, is the apparently aimless and

undecided way in which the Sturnidce and Ideridce usually

approach their food, trotting backwards and forwards, perhaps

two or three times, round the saucer before making up their

minds as to what they will begin upon : Psaroglossa always flew

straight to one side of its food-vessel and started feeding at

once : it did not eat a great deal of the soft mixture, but every

scrap of fruit, excepting banana, which I supplied. Occasionally

it would eat banana, but not if there was plenty of other fruit

handy. When ripe oranges failed and I had to substitute pear,

it fought shy of the latter for one day ; but, on the following

day, when I cut a ripe pear through the middle so as to show the

pips, it cleared out this fruit to the skin and never subsequently

failed to eat all that was given to it.


Watching this bird as I did, I was distressed to notice that

it did not appear to grow stronger, in spite of the amount of food

which it consumed. As I knew the value of spiders as a pick-



