PALATABILITY OF SOME BRITISH INSECTS. 827 



One male taken and eaten by Cape Robin-Chat. 



One male taken and eaten by Indian Orange headed Ground- 

 Thrush, after being pecked and rejected by Hoopoe. 



One male taken and eaten by Harmonious Shrike-Thrush. 



One female taken and eaten after a great deal of necking and 

 delay by Indian Black-headed Sibia, which was chased for it by a 

 Syrian Bulbul. 



One female taken and eaten, after a few moments' inspection 

 and biting at the wings before the position of the body was found, 

 by a Sand Lizard. A Duges's Lizard came up while the butterfly 

 was being chewed, and after tasting it once or twice, attacked the 

 Sand Lizard to make him relinquish his hold. 



One male taken by the same Sand Lizard after he had finished 

 the first specimen. I then made him drop it ; and offered it to a 

 Wall Lizard, which took it without delay and swallowed it. 



Group S a t y B i N m. 



The Marbled White (JJelanargia galathea). 



July 24, 1909. As a check I first of all offered a specimen of 

 P. napi to the cock Silver Pheasant. He took it from my fingers, 

 and without hesitation swallowed it and turned eagerly for more. 

 I then gave him a galathea, which he just as eagerly took, but 

 promptly lowered his head to the ground and spat it out. He 

 persevered with it, however, and after a little pecking and shaking, 

 ate it. I then tried him with another napi. He took it and 

 swallowed it at once, not hesitating for a single moment, exactly 

 as he had done with the first one. Then I gave him another 

 galathea, which he took but immediately put out of his beak upon 

 the ground ; but after some pecking and tasting he swallowed it. 



I consider this bird to have rather a refined taste for insects ; 

 and I can now tell tolerably accurately by his behaviour whether 

 he likes one or not. And I am quite sure that he found napi 

 very palatable and galathea not so. 



I then let a galathea loose in the aviary, and it was promptly 

 caught on the wing by a Fantailed Flycatcher, which flew with 

 it to the ground, and after pecking, pulling and shaking it about 

 for a minute or so, gave it up and took no further notice of 

 it. As a check I then tried him with Aphantopus hyperanthus, 

 which he caught in the same way, and very quickly demolished. 

 I then gave him another galathea, which he caught and pecked 

 and shook for some little time ; but he would not eat it. As a 

 further check I gave him Argynnis paphia, which he caught and 

 disposed of as quickly as he had disposed of the hyperanthus. 



I noticed that some of these galathea had darker spots below 

 than the others. Thinking that perhaps this might be a sexual 

 difference, I gave one of each kind to the Pheasant and to the 

 Flycatcher ; but the birds behaved in exactly the same way 

 towards them. 



One caught and eaten by Dial Bird ; also by Orange-headed 



[19] 



