THE ARISTOCRACY OF THE CREST 107 



ing way of the tails of processional caterpillars! 

 Meanwhile, unlike most other young birds when dis- 

 turbed, the queer little creatures made not a sound; 

 nor was there any protest from the parents; they, 

 indeed, showed their confidence in the instinct of 

 their babies by remaining severely away from the 

 nest. 



Less than an hour later I stole a march on the 

 young actors and caught them sitting up compla- 

 cently, with eyes wide open ! But they were closed 

 again immediately, and the uncanny mimicry broke 

 out with renewed vigor. It was altogether an ex- 

 traordinary instance of the high degree of artistry 

 to which the protective instinct will lead some of 

 Nature's children ; and it becomes the more eloquent 

 in the light of a similar record made by Dr. Mac- 

 gillivray, an ex-president of the Royal Australasian 

 Ornithologists' Union, in connection with the little 

 Black-throated Warbler, of North Queensland. 

 "The young birds," he says, "have four peculiar 

 head-plumes, which they have the power of erecting 

 and quivering vigorously. When one looks into a 

 nest these head-plumes are put into motion by the 

 birds, and remind one of a number of caterpillars 

 waving about." 



Is there, one wonders, any affinity between this 

 queer behaviour on the part of the Bell-Birds and 

 their equally remarkable habit of stocking their 

 nests with hairy caterpillars? Personally, I have 

 noted only the one instance of the waving process 

 by the young birds, but I have always found the em- 

 ployment of caterpillars in the nest to be constant. 

 You see these larvae usually, in my experience, 



