( 18 ) 



young on one. There is other food in ample quantities for 

 them. I spent an hour and a half after tea in seeing what 

 they brought. I sat within five feet of the nest with a pair 

 of glasses with which to make things out more clearly. In 

 twenty visits (both parents) I failed eleven times to see what 

 they brought, either through the birds being too quick for me, 

 or through not being able to make out small insects, and so on. 

 "What I (lid see were : — three spiders, one Noctuid larva, two 

 crickets, a bright red beetle which looked like a Lycid, though 

 I couldn't be certain of this (the only other red beetle in these 

 paits of that shade is a velvety Clerid, as far as I know), and 

 a large black and white Hypsid moth, I think Ihjpsa complana. 

 This was crammed into the young bird's throat, and he had 



[xxxii 

 much trouble in getting it down. I have always imagined 

 (on pure supposition) that Hypsidse, were distasteful. If I 

 can see anything more before posting this, I will add it 

 later." 



''March 23. 



" I have watched the nest at intervals since, but have seen 

 nothing out of the common brought, only larva?, grasshoppers, 

 spiders and so forth, and berries." 



[A later communication from Mr. H, Leslie Andrewes, dated 

 May 4, contained further interesting notes on the habits of 

 these insectivorous birds : — 



" The whole thing, as is usual with these silly birds, came 

 to grief a day or two after my observations, as the nest was 

 tied on anyhow to decaying cannas. I fixed it up for them 

 once or twice, but it capsized one night, and the family dis- 

 appeared. There was nnlimited food for old and young ; the 

 garden was full of grasshoppers (which formed a large pax't of 

 their food), also caterpillars. For all this, at about every 

 third visit, if not more frequently, the parents stopped to 

 swallow the young birds' excrement. Perhaps I should have 

 made a note of it, but I knew that thrushes did this* — I 

 have seen them do so — and thought it was a more or less 



* For an observation of the kind alluded to, see "Xature," vol. Ivii, 

 April 14, 1898, p. 554. 



