EXPLANATION OF FOKM AND COLOURING. 329 



Exp. 126. — December 21. I fed the roller on grasshoppers till she absolutely refused 

 to touch another. She then tasted and rejected Papilio angolanus, crushed very 

 thoroughly indeed and ended by rejecting a large $ Gynanisa ethra (though 

 alive 18 hours before, it was now dead and even, I thought, beginning to smell 

 very slightly), refusing to taste it again on its being reofFered, but crushed and 

 ate very readily a large conspicuous Asilid with a comparatively slow flight, 

 Microstylum validum. 



\_M. validum preferred to Gynanisa ethra $ , P. angolanus, and grasshoppers.] 



Exp. 127. — December 24. Refused obstinately to taste a Terias, readily 

 accepted and ate a Myc. campina, once more refused the Terias, and went on 

 to eat no less than eighteen Myc. campina, the last few with increasing dis- 

 inclination. The nineteenth was obstinately refused, but four Papilio angolanus 

 were readily eaten, the fifth refused without tasting ; a Myc. campina refused, 

 then tasted and rejected, and another Papilio aoigolanus taken listlessly and tossed 

 aside. The bird then crushed very thoroughly and ate without apparent dislike a 

 large S Gynanisa ethra, refused a Precis cebrene, took listlessly, crushed and held, 

 but finally tossed away a Catacrojitera cloantha, threw away a usuall}^ much-liked 

 grasshopper, refused Catopsilia florella without tasting, as also a grasshopper of 

 another favourite species, then leant forward as though inclined to accept the mate 

 of the previous Saturniid, a large gravid § , but I v/ithdrew it, wishing to reserve 

 it for breeding. 



[Order : — 



1. Gynanisa ethra S . 1 Gynanisa ethra $ probably slightly preferred to P. 



2. P. angolanus. J cebrene, O. cloantha, G. florella, and the grasshopper. 



3. M. campina. 



4. Terias.l 



Exp. 128. — December 27. Tasted and rejected a Terias, then refused it without 

 tasting, but readily ate in succession no less than thirty-one Papilio angolanus, 

 each with one hindwing attached, the last five or six with increasing and, in the 

 end, marked disinclination. The thirty-second was just taken and tossed away 

 and then refused persistently without tasting. The roller then twice crushed well 

 and finally rejected Papilio demodocus, refused Terias without tasting (the first 

 Terias had been reofiered in amongst the first few angolaftus and was at once 

 swallowed, whether inadvertently or otherwise it was impossible to say), readily 

 ate, wings and all, a Precis cebrene and a Catacroptera cloantha ; refused even to 

 taste Catopsilia florella, readily ate another Precis cebrene, persistently refused 

 to taste Papilio angolamos, refused, then tasted and rejected Papilio demodocus 

 readily ate two brown Hepaliid moths {Gorgopis) and the Catopsilia florella, tasted 

 again and rejected Papilio demodocus, readily ate a S Arrugia basuta and a Precis 

 ceryne f ., and battered and broke into three a large $ Saturniid with one wing, 

 gravid [Gynanisa ethra, Westw.), the pieces falling to the ground. I reoflfered the 

 thorax, which was well crushed and readily swallowed. The bird then refused to 

 have anything to do either with the whole abdomen after crushing it carefully or 



