1895.] Frank Finn — Theory of Warning Colours and Mimicry. 347 



food by it, and had had cockroaches in the morning. Another cater- 

 pillar, smaller, and covered -with long whitish hair, with two pencils of 

 hair near the head, was untouched. 



December 1 7th. — A Babbler ate an Euproctis readily. The hairy 

 caterpillar not eaten yesterday was still untouched, so I took it away. 



December 18th. — The Babblers ate four specimens of Euproctis ; 

 they were hungry. They ate some Catopsilia and other non-warningly- 

 coloured butterflies with relish, and ate also three Danais genutia ; but 

 only one of these was eaten directly by one and the same bird, and the 

 others were evidently not relished much, for the birds ate Papilios* of 

 equal size much more readily. Specimens of a black beetle with yellow 

 patches {Mylabris sp.) were taken, and the elytra got rid of, but the 

 birds did not seem to like the body, and I saw one left. 



December \9th. — The birds were hungry in the morning, and one 

 ate a Danais chrysippus readily enough. Then a D. limniace was l-eadily 

 eaten. An Euploea was also eaten ; the bird pecked it about on the 

 ground much first, seeming especially to attack the yellow anal organ. 

 A cockroach subsequently put in excited more competition thau these but- 

 terflies, and caused a fight. Several D. genutia and chrysippus were then 

 turned into the aviary, and two of the Babblers immediately attacked 

 them. I gave them some Euproctis, and they ate some, I believe all, 

 of them. By this time, too, they had torn all the Danais to pieces, and 

 as I saw no bodies lying about, I presume eaten them, though they had 

 now some plantain (a food they did not relish). In the evening an 

 Euploea was eaten, though there was food in the cage. 



Yesterday, I think, I put the hairy caterpillar which had previously 

 escaped destruction, in again. It remained untouched for a day, and 

 next morning I found it dead in the water. The birds seemed never 

 even to look at it. 



December list. — Two of the Babblers had been placed in the cage of 

 a Bhimraj ( Dissemurus paradiseus), and this bird put in the aviary with a 

 Laughing Jackass (Dacelo gigas,) (not used in these experiments) and one 

 Babbler. Another of the hairy caterpillars noted previously {Dec. 16th) 

 as eaten by a Babbler remained untouched for some time, but afterwards 

 I found it dead and deprived of its hair, but uneaten. I don't know which 

 bird did this. I put a mixed lot of butterflies in the aviary, and saw the 

 Babbler, which was hungry, three times take and eat a non-warningly- 

 coloured butterfly in preference to Danais chrysippus and D. genutia, 

 which it could easily have caught. Indeed, I saw it take and drop a 

 D. genutia, and seize and eat a Dapilio* instead. It ate a grasshopper 

 before any butterflies. At the end of the day two Dapilios (one torn) 



* Not P. aristolvchise, 



J. it. u 



