EXPLANATION OF FORM AND COLOURING. 315 



I now fed her up on grasshoppers, &c., till she would eat no more, absolutely 

 refusing several favourite species in succession. She then refused a Mycalesis 

 campina and tasted and rejected JVeptis agatha. Thereupon I offered her 

 Plcesiorrhina plana, a large black Cetoniid beetle crossed by a white bar which 

 occurs now at the bananas. She had the greatest difficulty in dealing with this ; 

 it occasionally slipped out of her bill, though less so than the Coprid of the other 

 day; once it succeeded in opening its wings and gave vent to a loud buzz like that 

 of a Xylocopa bee. The roller at once dropped it in alarm and on my reoffering it 

 only accepted it after marked hesitation. Three times the insect, held back down- 

 wards, clasped the bird's upper mandible with its particularly tenacious feet. This 

 irritated the bird beyond measure ; it was only with the greatest difficulty that 

 she managed each time to extricate herself from the Cetoniid's embrace and she at 

 once flung it away with a great show of rage, finally refusing to have anything 

 more to do with it. She then refused without tasting Neptis agatha, accepted a 

 speckled Cetoniid, Diplirontis vethi, captured to-day in the forest, and obtainino- 

 without difficulty a good grip on it, for it was flat in shape and not markedly 

 slippery, she crushed it with her bill, but, making very little impression, battered 

 it well against the perch (the beetle once slipped from her bill and had to be re- 

 offered), crushed it again for some time with her bill, this time with greater 

 success, and swallowed it still very much alive. She then reaccepted though 

 without eagerness the first Cetoniid. It at once shot out of her bill when pressure 

 was applied, and the bird refused persistently and repeatedly with emphatic shakes 

 of the head to have anything more to do with it. 



Twenty minutes later I offered it again, when it was distinctly tasted, the bird 

 obtaining a good grip, and rejected. Nep)tis agatha was refused without tasting. 

 Ten minutes later the bird again tasted the Cetoniid, once more obtaining a firm 

 grip and crushing well in, and ended by flinging it away. It was quite evident 

 that it was not liked. She then readily ate Neptis agatha, and obstinately refused 

 with many shakes of the head to taste the beetle again. 



Half an hour later, no food meantime, I offered a Belenois mesentina. The bird 

 at the far end of a perch, edged up with a certain amount of hesitation, tasted it 

 cautiously, and retired with a shake of the head. 



[Summary: — Terias preferred to Aletis, JSf. agatha to Plcesiorrhina plana, and 

 Biphi-ontis vethi found easier to manage than the Plcesiorrhina, which was itself 

 also possessed of some unpleasantness in addition to its very excellent deterrent 

 degrees of hardness, gloss, and clawing. The Coprid was eaten without much 

 breaking at the stage of refusing Aletis but eating Tericts. Somewhat high un- 

 pleasantness of B. mesentina reaffirmed.] 



Exp. IQl.— October 28. I fed the bird on grasshoppers till she persistently 

 refused to touch another. She then refused, but on my pressing her tasted and 

 rejected a Papilio angolanas, crushed and readily ate a pupa of a Longicorn beetle 

 Anthores leuconotiis, refused, then tasted and rejected a dead but supple Papilio 

 ophidocephctlus withovit wings, readily ate a Catacroptera doantha, and once more 

 tasted, this time crushing it better, and rejected a Papilio ophidocephalus. 



LINN. JOURN. — ZOOLOGY, VOL. XXXIII. 23 



