The Bionomics of South African Insects. 407 



is also "inclined to tliiuk" that a white-eye (Zosterops) 

 ended by swallowing the insect after masticating it for a 

 long time. The behaviour of the cuckoo is really con- 

 firmatory of previous observations, for it has been long 

 known that our own cuckoo is a coarse feeder, and there 

 is even evidence that it eats this very species, as pointed 

 out by our President in the Annual Address for the present 

 year (Proc. 1901, p. xli). The experiments made by Beddard 

 and Finn on lizards support previous conclusions : " chewed 

 and refused by L. viridis, and disregarded by Zonurus and 

 Avqjhibolurus ; " but they state that a toad ate the larva. 

 From their other observations on these Amphibia, it appears 

 certain that toads are indifferent to modes of defence 

 which are efficacious against the majority of insect- 

 eaters; but many more observations and exiaeriments 

 under various conditions are needed before we can safely 

 conclude that Abraxus is palatable to tliese enemies. As 

 possessing some bearing on the question, it is to be noted 

 that a toad which had swallowed a caterpillar of Eitchelia 

 jacohiem, " almost immediately threw it up" (p. 159). 



We now come to the more recent experiments of 

 Professor Plateau. He found (§ 5) that eight Cistudo 

 euro])cva, which were certainly insectivorous, inasmuch as 

 they devoured beetles, paid no attention to the larva of 

 Abraxas, with the exception of one individual which seized 

 a larva and then abandoned it. Coluber cvsculapii and 

 an Italian variety of Laccrta murcdis paid no attention to 

 them, and if, when one of them opened its mouth, a larva 

 was inserted, it was immediately rejected. As regards 

 Amphibia (§ 6), Professor Plateau found that the common 

 frog acted exactly as Dr. A, G. Butler has described. He 

 further believes that the frog never again attacks the 

 caterpillar which it has once seized and rejected, although, 

 as the larva walks off quite uninjured, the frog sometimes 

 follows its movements for a few seconds. He then threw 

 some larvse into an aquarium containing a number of 

 Triton jmnctatns, many of which seized and " made eftbrts 

 to swallow them, giving, according to their custom, sharp 

 blows with the head to right and left. But the prey was 

 too big, or the skin too tough, for the Tritons abandoned 

 them after a few minutes." The newt swallows its prey 

 whole, and has great powers of expansion to meet the 

 special difficulty of size, so it is far more probable that 

 these Amphibia were influenced in the same manner as 



