8 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



ability to some such idea. These are occasionally, but not 

 frequently, found about half-way up the corolla. They are 

 circular and very minute, not at all what one would expect as 

 the work of a mason or any other bee. The former I have 

 watched for carefully, but have^ never seen one near the flowers, 

 and I cannot learn that any one has seen them in the act of 

 making the openings. They are admitted to be very rare, whilst 

 the openings at the base of the flower are almost invariably 

 present. The hive-bees certainly do not make them, and humble- 

 bees do not appear to visit these flowers at all ; at least I have 

 never seen one do so, whilst I have seen the openings actually 

 made by the Garden Warbler. 



On one exceptionally fine day I found the ants visiting the 

 flowers on a few of the stems, and I cannot doubt that in prolonged 

 fine weather they would swarm over the places where food is so 

 abundant, and that other insects would do the same. 



It seems more than probable that the habit displayed by the 

 Blackcap has the same object which it clearly had in the Canary 

 Islands ; and it is remarkable that in Algiers the only plants thus 

 dealt with are not natives. I could not find throughout Algeria 

 any native plant that had been thus dealt with. 



In the following year (March 13th, 1895), numbers of Sylvia 

 atricapilla were observed at Ajaccio, in Corsica. At short intervals 

 they were seen to visit ripe clusters of the fruit of the Yucca in 

 the hotel garden. After creeping over the fruit-spike, searching 

 for insects, which they were seen to take, they afterwards spent 

 some time pecking at the ripe pulp and tearing off pieces of the 

 outer skin. This is done in the early morning ; later in the day 

 they do not peck at the fruit in this way, but at regular intervals 

 creep over the spike, evidently in search of insects. 



All the preceding observations were carefully and repeatedly 

 made, and though it is desirable that they should be confirmed by 

 other observers, I am well assured of their exactness. They 

 suggest some striking points for consideration : — 



(1.) As to the object with which the openings are made : is it 

 for the purpose of obtaining the nectar ? To a certain extent 

 this may be so. It shows a marvellous instinct in the Blackcap 

 that it can find out the exact spot in the calyx under which the 

 drop of nectar lies, and if to obtain this is its sole object in making 

 the openings, it is difficult to understand why it should, later in 



