( Ixxi ) 



and when I got up to it saw it was a congregation of many 

 individuals of a coral red (but a dull, not a bright colour) 

 millipede (or should I say Chilognath ?), about an inch long. 

 There must have been a couple of hundred or so. The mass 

 was slowly moving in one direction, but the individuals pur- 

 sued a very erratic course. At first I thought it might be 

 a gathering for family purposes, but could see no evidence 

 of that at all. It was of interest that these brightly coloured 

 species should congregate in this way; for I should think 

 that the Chilognatha must be grouped as ' distasteful,' judging 

 by the extremely offensive excretion they give out when 

 picked up. [It is possible that the gregarious habit serves 

 to increase the conspicuousness of such a specially protected 

 form.] 



" Feb. 23. 



" Another wagtail observation to-day. I went down to 

 the same puddle about 2 o'clock, and one bird was there 

 again, very busy. From 1.55-2 he ate as follows : 1 Lycaenid, 

 1 Atella, 4 Lycaenids ; he then seized one of the extremely abun- 

 dant ' whites ' by the abdomen but at once let go, and the butterfly 

 flew away with the others which rose in a cloud ; he then ate 

 5 more Lycaenids in quick succession. At 2.0 he ran away 

 to a shady spot and rested for a minute, and from 2.1-2.5 

 he ate 8 Lycaenids in succession, followed by another Atella. 

 He was then frightened away by a man approaching. This, 

 I think, coupled with my previous observations, leaves little 

 room for doubt that the Pierines are relatively distasteful 

 as compared with Lycaenids (and Atella). This makes the 

 undoubted mimicry of Pierines by Lycaenids all the more 

 interesting. There is one Lycaenid [Phylaria cyara], not very 

 common, which has quite an ordinary purplish blue upper 

 side, but the under side is white with only a few black spots 

 (quite unlike any other Lycaenid pattern) and yellow at the 

 base of the hind-wing. I have seen this one drinking amongst 

 a crowd of ' whites,' and its general resemblance to a small 

 Pierine is very striking. The ' tails ' to the hind-wing in 

 this species (I send you one or two in the collection I send 

 now) are very slender and inconspicuous. 



'■ I am quite certain that the wagtail referred to deliberately 



