PALATABILITT OF SOME BRITISH INSECTS. 853 



ate them, namely a Dial Bird, a Jay-Thrush, and a Shrike-Thrush. 

 The Dial Bird ate one quickly with only one or two wipes in the 

 sand. In the other cases there was a great deal of pecking and 

 wiping before the insects were finally disposed of. From the 

 behaviour of the birds there could be no doubt that there was 

 something in the bees not to their liking, even to those that 

 ultimately ate them. The Bulbul, Sibia, and Tanager were 

 obviously keen to eat them, and gave them the fullest possible 

 trial before finally rejecting them ; but whether it was the hairs, 

 or the hard chitin, or the flavour, or a combination of them that 

 made the insects unpalatable, I do not know. 



Further experiments demonstrating the distastefulness of 

 Humble Bees to birds of different kinds are given in the following 

 section : — 



Experiments to test the significance of the resemblance between 

 Humble Bees (Bombus) and the Flies Arctophila mussitans, 

 Volucella bombylans, and Chilosia illustrate/,. 



Bombus agrorum and Arctophila mussitans. 



Oct. 26, 1909. Offered Bee to a Lion Marmoset which was 

 busily catching house-flies and bluebottles in his cage. He 

 looked at it, but would not touch it. I then offered the fly, but 

 he also refused to touch it. He did not, however, hesitate to take 

 a Red Admiral offered a moment afterwards. 



Offered Bee to Leach's Laughing Kingfisher. He took it at 

 once, but soon flicked it away. Six times in succession he took it 

 from my fingers and dropped it on each occasion. I could not 

 induce him to take it again. Instead he started pecking my 

 fingers. Thereupon I offered him the fly, and he just as reso- 

 lutely refused to take it. 



Offered Bee to Kagu, a New Caledonian Rail. He inspected 

 it, and after a little hesitation tasted it. But he would not touch 

 it again ; and when offered the fly, refused that likewise. 



Offered Bee to Central American White-browed Partridge. 

 He took it without hesitation, but after a peck or two left it and 

 went away. I then threw it to him, and he tasted it again ; but 

 would not eat it. I then threw him the fly, but he would not 

 touch it. 



A Douracouli (a South- American monkey) ; a Honduras Turkey ; 

 a cock and a hen Reeves's Pheasant, and three hen Silver 

 Pheasants refused to touch both bee and fly, though they 

 inspected them intently for a few seconds. 



Sept. 20, 1910. Bee offered to Hoopoe was taken at once and 

 tasted without being crushed, but was then left on the ground 

 uneaten. The bird refused the next one 1 offered, and then 

 refused to take the fly, although he stretched his head towards 

 it and inspected it. 



Bee offered to Yellow -crowned Hangnest, which took it at once, 

 but soon dropped it. A second time he took it, and dropped it. 



[45] 



