the Culuration uf E(jgs. 593 



and again, and licking it out or crunching it, while still 

 ignoring the various rejected eggs placed before him. Re- 

 peated his previous refusals up to and including Hedge- 

 Sparrow, but, with some hesitation, started on the Thrushes 

 and ate it. I removed it before it was quite finished and re- 

 peated the oflFerings. All were refused but the Thrusli's, which 

 was accepted and finished, but not licked out exhaustively 

 like the Sparrow's. Following this, the mongoose started 

 on the Hedge-Sparrow's, but did not finish it. He then re- 

 peated his various refusals, including Hedge- Sparrow's, but 

 readily ate another freshly-laid House-Martin's, returning 

 to it and frequently licking it out, etc., as before, long after 

 it was emptied, and again repeated all his refusals. This 

 time, several of the previously-refused eggs were refused at 

 sight — an important point. I, nevertheless, held them per- 

 sistently to his mouth till each was definitely smelt and 

 refused. I obtained in this way an actual tasting of the 

 Flycatcher's (followed by a prompt rejection) and a scrunch- 

 ing between the teeth of the Pied Wagtail's, the mongoose 

 then throwing it right down and shaking his head. I had 

 placed each egg on the ground under his nose as it was 

 refused, and he now smelt them all over and refused to 

 touch any but the Hedge-Sparrow's, which he returned to 

 and ate. I then picked each up in turn and offered it, again 

 placing each below his nose as he refused it — and he refused 

 every one. Finally, I offered another House-Martin's egg, 

 and this was at once accepted and eaten. After a yet 

 further repetition of his various refusals, he went on to eat 

 a very hard-set Sylvia simplex egg (its advanced state of 

 incubation may, of course, have influenced this acceptance) ; 

 then once moi-e repeated his refusals, but ate beef with 

 even greater eagerness than he had shown for anything 

 else. 



I left in the cage the various species of egg used, excluding 

 Hedge-Sparrow, Thrush, House-Martin, and Sparrow, and, 

 one-and-a-half hours later, found the Flycatchei-'s broken 

 but not eaten, the two Wagtails' broken and possibly eaten (a 

 moisture on the ground was not necessarily theirs), and only 



SER. X. VOL. IV. 2 s 



