344 Frank Finn — Theory of Warning Colours and Mimicry. [No. 3, 



spur slender curved, longer than the ovary, slightly compressed laterally. 

 Column very short : stigmas large, tapering towards the entrance to 

 the spur. Pollinia cyliudric, slightly clavate, rather longer than their 

 caudicles and attached to them at half a right angle ; gland small, sub- 

 rotund. 



Sikkim: at Gnatong ; elevation 11,000 feet: flowering in July; 

 collected by Mr. Pantling and also by Dr. Cummins, Surgeon to the 

 detachment of troops stationed near the Thibet frontier, to whom we 

 have dedicated the species. 



This belongs to the section Rologlossa and is allied to S. pachy- 

 caulon, Hook, fil., but it is perfectly distinct from that species. 



Contributions to the Theory of Warning Colours and Mimicry, No. I. 

 Experiments with a Babbler (Crateropus canorus). — By Frank Finn, 

 B.A., F.Z.S., Deputy Superintendent of the Indian Museum. 



Not long after my arrival in Calcutta in October 1894, I commenced 

 some researches on the common " warningly coloured " butterflies of 

 the locality, in the hope of supplying some of that experimental proof of 

 the unpalatability of such species, the insufficiency of which Professor 

 Poulton (the Colours of Animals, p. 227) so justly deplores. My most 

 complete experiments were made with the common Babbler Crateropus 

 canorus, a representative and abundant insectivorous bii'd in India, 

 whose habit of going about in small flocks is indicated by its native 

 name of " sat-bhai " and the English ones of "Seven Brothers" and 

 " Seven Sisters." This bird, as it frequents trees and bushes, though 

 often feeding on the ground in the open at a short distance from 

 these, must constantly encounter butterflies in repose ; that it often 

 succeeds in capturing them on the wing I very much doubt, its weak 

 clumsy flight being certainly most ill-adapted for such a performance. 

 Though it can swallow whole butterflies of considerable size, it often 

 transfers its prey to one foot, and thus holding it, easily picks off the 

 wings. In confinement this species speedily becomes tame enough 

 to feed from the hand, and will eat table scraps, boiled rice, &c, quite 

 readily. So tame were some birds which I kept, that, when after being 

 kept about a fortnight (some of them longer) they were released, they 

 stayed about the compound for about three days, still willing to take 

 insects from my hands. Thus I had an opportunity of checking the 

 results of the experiments I had made on them during their incarcera- 

 tion — a piece of good fortune which has not so far, I believe, fallen to 

 the lot of any previous experimenter. 



