EXPLANATION OF FORM AND COLOURING. 345 



lOrder : — 

 P 77- fnohf^" -^^^^^"^ <^^^''^'*^j 'S'ftZamis rt?iac«rcZM, (7. ^oreZZa, probably Cetoniid. 



■•^ ' \^2. Papilio lyceus ^ probably not 



I a great 



7- .7 7 • , r3. Precis natalensis. © f. I difference. 

 L. thalassina d , I > ^ y 



Fir" ^' y/^ P. dardanus S , P-o,ngolanus. 



A. schceneia. 



P. tugela. 



A. glohulipennis. 



Elaterid, Musca 



Lixus. [domestica. 



I felt at the time that the rejection of Precis clelia in the first paragraph of this 

 experiment required some special explanation, as it was unusual for the roller to 

 eat grasshoppers to jiinonia-re^-asiwg point, and an inclination had been shown to 

 eat P. lycEus. I thought suspicion rather than repletion might account for the 

 rejection — suspicion perhaps that P. natalensis had been the cause of ill-efi'ects 

 on some previous occasion and rejection of P. clelia through similarity of taste. 

 The incident of the Lachnoptera of the other day might have been even more 

 productive of suspicion, and the roller's ready discrimination between P. natalensis 

 with a cehrene wing and actual one- winged P. cehrene was interesting in this 

 connection. Certainly the whole experiment — the special mistrust of the wingless 

 white body of G. florella and so on — rather conveys the impression of a bird in a 

 suspicious frame of mind.] 



COBACIAS OAMBULUS. A. 



Exp. 152. — February 21. Accepted doubtfully, but then crushed and ate readily 

 enough a smallish snail (probably a young Ackatina), tasted and rejected a Lycoid 

 sawfly (Athalia himantopus), its larva (destructive to turnips, etc.), and a bug 

 {Bagrada hilaris), tasted and rejected a Zonocerus elegans and a Mylahris oculata, 

 and accepted with suspicion but then readily enough ate a large yellow slug (on 

 turnips). Ten minutes later I offered a second slug, which was eaten as readily. 



[Order : — • 



1. The yellow slug. 



2. The Lycoid sawfly, imago and larva, Bagrada hilaris, 



Zonocerus elegans, Alylabris oculata.'] 



Exp. 153. — March 1. Refused with shakes of the head, but on my pressing it on 

 him tasted cautiously and refused to accept the larva, of a Saturniid moth. 

 [Unfortunately nothing is stated as to the state of the roller's appetite.] 



Exp. 154. — March 2. Very hungry. Attempted to eat a weevil, .Hi2)porrhinus 

 chirindensis, Mshl., but absolutely failed to crush it. After two or three attempts 

 she refused to have anything more to do with it. Nevertheless, she crushed with 

 comparative ease and swallowed a Tenebrionid (Amianttis glohulipennis, Per.). A 

 dung-beetle, Onthophagus panoplus, was now seized, but was dropped with a shake of 

 the head : from the position in which it had been taken 1 had no doubt that the 



