EXPLANATION OF FORM AND COLOURING. 333 



[Probable order : — 



1 . Catopsilia f,orella. 



2. Eurytela liiarbas. 



3. Papilio angolanus, M. campina, gi'asshoppers. 



4. Mylothris ytilei, on manner above 



5. Zo7ioceruselegans $ , N. inedusa, Olapa nuda,^r\.A the saw-fly larva.] 



Exp. 133. — January 9. Offered a wasp, Dielis ^-fasciata var. mansueta. She at 

 once accepted it, but failed to crush it at first trial, and the wasp at once escaped 

 on the roller's relaxing her hold to bite again. The next wasp also escaped. The 

 bird, in trying to prevent its escape, managed to get it rather far back in her bill 

 and at once brought it hastily forward to the tip, when she again failed to crush it 

 — it is a distinctly hard insect. A third having escaped in the same way, I 

 offered the next with its two wings on one side cut off. But even this was 

 dropped three or four times. Like its predecessors it stung furiously and con- 

 tinuously against the bird's hard bill while being held, and it seemed to me that 

 the roller did not dare to bring it further back in her bill as she would have done 

 an ordinary insect. The result was that, on her failing to crush the wasp at the 

 first or second trial, she would either drop it completely or the insect, being held 

 so near the tip, would escape on the roller's hold being momentarily relaxed to 

 bite. Once it entered the bill abdomen first, but was at once rejected and no 

 harm seemed to have resulted. The roller never followed it up when it fell, 

 simply looking down at it lazily from her perch, so that I had to secure and reoffer 

 it each time. On about the fifth occasion the roller cracked the insect's thorax at 

 the first attempt, and at once abandoning all her previous caution merely ran it 

 three or four times lengthwise through her bill as carelessly as she would have 

 done a grasshopper, crushing it well as she did so, then turning it head foremost 

 swallowed it. The bird evidently realized the danger from the sting, and her 

 whole attention had been devoted each time to at once crushing the thorax of the 

 insect in the point of her bill and especially to avoiding bringing it far back in the 

 mouth. Once the thorax was crushed, she realized that there was little or no 

 further danger. 



She then tasted and at once rejected a Oalerucella triloba, Fabr., and its larva and 

 refused without tasting two species of Mylabris (31. oculata and M. omega, Mars.). 



She was distinctly hungry, however, and made a huge meal oflE" various Orthoptera 

 and other insects which I now placed in the cage. Later on she crushed well and 

 threw right away a Psychid larva enclosed in its usual caddis-like covering. 



Exp. 134. — January 9. Later in the day : — 



To ascertain whether Biscolia alaris, Sauss., and Dielis 5-fasciata var. mansueta 

 are unwelcome apart from their stings and the Psychid apart from its covering. 



Was fed on grasshoppers till she refused to eat any more. She then equally 

 persistently refused to touch a P. angolanus and crushed well and rejected a Biscolia 

 alaris. Only ten minutes later, however, she readily ate the P. angolanus twice 

 crushed and rejected the black wasp {I>iscolia), readily ate another P. angolanus 



24* 



