316 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF (June, 
mammals, birds, and reptiles appear to vary as to the edibility of 
this or that insect... .. But these experiments do show that 
very generally, though not always, a disagreeable taste is associated 
with a conspicuous and varied coloration. On the other hand, 
precisely the same deductions can be drawn by watching the behavior 
of animals when offered inconspicuously colored insects” (p. 155). 
As in previous cases, we will give the direct comparisons that can 
be made between these and other sets of experiments. Four out of 
seven contrasted pairs are contradictory. 
Poulton’s 
Tables, Animals 
1887. Beddard. tested. 
Armadillo vulgaris... A A2 Lacerta viridis. 
Lithobius forficatus.......... A R ‘ ‘ = 
Pieris brassicae, 1... R A5R2D1 Lizards. 
Abraxas grossulariata, |. - IR7D2 R1D2 o 
Vespa vulgar ts..n.cccccccccceeen A2 ee 
Euchelia jacobe, 1......... a 2R4 A1R3D1 
Pocock, 1911. Beddard. 
Pieris brassica, 1.............A20R18 A2D1 Birds. 
Beddard justly remarks (p. 166): ‘None of these experiments 
are thoroughly satisfactory; it is so difficult to interpret them, and 
they are often contradictory, for a bird will eat one day what it has 
refused before. The experiments that have been made are like most 
other statistics—they may be made to prove anything. A careful 
series of observations upon the contents of the stomachs of wild 
birds would be the nearest approach to a satisfactory solution of the 
difficulty; but there are obvious objections to this mode of inves- 
tigation.” 
Fortunately, this objectionable method has been pursued to some 
extent in England, i.e., by Newstead, and to a slight degree the 
work serves as a check on experiments with British birds and insects. 
Beddard gave an earwig to a green woodpecker, which made a great 
deal of fuss over it, but ended by swallowing it; Newstead found 
these insects in two stomachs of green woodpeckers, one of which 
contained 23. 
Merely for the sake of completeness the very brief notes upon 
experiments by Thomas Belt* may be given here: 
A tame white-faced monkey always killed but did not eat Heliconii 
(pp. 316, 317). 
Suppl. Journ. Bd. Agr. (Lond.], XV, 1908, p. 64. 
% The Naturalist in Nicaragua, 1888. 
