586 Mr. C. F. M. Swynnerton on 



nibble a grain of buckwheat — I could not see if he fiuislied 

 it; accepted with disiaclination, and began to eat a leg o£ a 

 nestling A. albifrons^ and eagerly ate a scrap of bread; 

 afterwards returning to the Weaver leg, but relinquishing 

 it at once in favour of a second scrap of bread. He finally 

 finished the leg and ate more bread. 



Comment. — " I was able to give too little consecutive time 

 to the experiment. Preferences were shown, and the long 

 delays must also be taken into account as conducing to 

 hunger. At the same time the experiment seemed to me to 

 bear some resemblance to that of the day before yesterday. 

 Does the rat have his rash days, or is it merely the result 

 of too little animal food during the preceding twenty- four 

 hours ? " 



Apparent preferences : (1) Siiagra ocularia and Turtur 

 damarensis. (2) Macronyx croceus. The Turtur appeared 

 to be preferred, too, to Chalcopelia, and a preference was 

 shown at the end for fresh Amblyospiza as against Colius- 

 passer (new-laid, medium, and incubated), blue Hyphantornis 

 (fairly fresh), and Siiagra (fresh). • 



Expt. 11. Feb. 8. — Gave the rat a large and varied feed 

 at 8 P.M. yesterday evening, both animal and vegetable. 

 The former consisted of a head and leg of a small nestling 

 A. alhifrons, several grasshoppers of the pleasanter species, 

 and milk — the vegetable food of maize-porridge and banana. 

 An egg of C. ardens was also left in. This morning all had 

 been eaten, except a small scrap of banana. 



I added, fairly early in the morning, a very hard-set egg 

 of the Coliuspasser. This was neglected, and continued to 

 be so for some time. Eventually I noticed it had fallen 

 behind the tray, and not wishing to disturb the rat over- 

 much, as I intended to experiment, did not attempt to 

 ascertain whether it had been emptied or not. Later in the 

 day I noticed it was eaten. 



At about 11 A.M. I broke down the side of yesterday^s 

 T. damarensis egg to the level of the liquid (it was more 

 than half -full still and less hard-set than I thought yesterday) 

 and inserted it. The rat lapped a few times, then abandoned 



