410 Timehri. 
Many skippers are fond of feeding on fresh bird droppings, so 
common on leaves of plants growing beneath trees where birds congre- 
gate. Such a feeding habit does not quite fall in lie with what one 
would expect of a butterfly, and it now and then causes the death of the 
feeder, for there are some spiders which, when crouched on the look-out 
for prey, greatly resemble bird droppings, and, of course, it goes ill with 
the butterfly that should alight on such a cunningly deceptive mass of 
animate matter. 
Our yellow butterfly delights in sipping the moisture from damp 
earth, and for this purpose frequently resorts in crowds to hollows or 
the beds of creeks. The big pretty Morpho achilles is fond of regaling 
itself on the moisture from the skins of sucked ripe mangoes which have 
been thrown down on foot-paths that traverse its habitat. 
As regards egg-laying it is frequently possible by observing the 
manner of flight of a female butterfly to tell she is engaged in egg-laying, 
or is in search of a particular plant for the purpose of depositing eggs 
thereon. Her flight is then slower and more deliberate than usual. She 
goes in and out among the bushes with the air of being earnestly in 
quest of some object. In vain are flowers hung out as gaudy signals 
alluring her to a feast of nectar. Under ordinary circumstances she may 
have paused to taste of the honeyed feast each had in store. At last 
she alights on a leaf of a plant, curls her abdomen, and, after a pause of 
barely three seconds, is on the wing again. Examining the leaf she has 
just quitted, we notice on its under-side perhaps, a small conical or 
rounded whitish object. This is her egg. In the meanwhile she makes 
several wide circuits, and after two or three minutes returns to 
the plant, and, paying no heed to us, motionless since we stand, lays a 
second ege on another leaf of the same plant. We wonder that she 
found the plant, small, and almost completely hidden as it was in a tangle 
of miscellaneous vegetation, and without a flower, too, that may have 
served her to some extent as a guide. 
When we observe a butterfly search along a stretch of vegetation 
for a particular plant, and find it under the conditions just mentioned, we 
cannot but perceive that it is, in its own way, a botanist of no mean 
standing. Somehow or other it is able to distinguish the plant, and can 
pick it out from the lot with a certainty which even the human botanist 
cannot surpass. The caterpillar of our yellow butterfly feeds on Cassias 
and the adult female can pick them out readily from among other plants. 
The caterpillars of three or four other of our common butterflies feed 
on Passifloras—vines of the semitou type—and the parent insect can find 
them out though they be climbing low among grass and bush. Indeed, 
the persistent presence of one or other of these butterflies is an unerring 
indication to the field naturalist that a Passiflora is in his immediate 
neighbourhood, even though he may not yet see it 
When eggs are deposited on a leaf, they may be laid on the upper sur- 
face or on the lower surface, or in some cases on either surface indiserimi- 
