ONE EXPERIENCE ENOUGH 237 



he had, immediately, dropped it, he certainly 

 would have " pulled a face " had his features 

 admitted of it. Such an instance enables one to 

 see how very advantageous the acquisition of " warn- 

 ing colours " might be to a nauseous animal, saving 

 it from some experimental tasting ; but unfortu- 

 nately for the theory, toads, and several other 

 animals with repellent attributes, have been singu- 

 larly unsuccessful in evolving such patterns. 



The mere possession of a striking pattern of the con- 

 ventional " warning " type does not prevent experi- 

 mental tasting by novices ; my birds often tried an 

 insect they afterwards refused, and a very interesting 

 case of this occurred with a Starling (Sturnus vulgaris 

 menzbieri), which is only a winter migrant to 

 India, and probably knows little of the taste of 

 Indian butterflies. I offered this bird one of the 

 black-and-scarlet swallow-tails above-mentioned, 

 which was immediately gulped whole with charac- 

 teristic Starling greediness. But next day another 

 was not even touched, at which I was not surprised, 

 as this butterfly is so objectionable to birds that 

 often they will not even kill it. 



So the lesson was well learnt, and such lessons 

 may be long remembered ; to a Starling I kept in 

 England, which, when I bought it, had been kept 

 for months in close captivity, and had had no chance 

 of seeing caterpillars, I offered those of the buff-tip 

 moth (Pygara bucepbala), well known to be un- 

 palatable to birds, and distinguished by a striking 

 black- and-yellow chequered coloration ; the bird 



