42 THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 
minutes, during which time the butterfly never went more 
than a few inches from the lady’s head, and always re- 
turned to the blue knob, apparently trying to alight there- 
on. The lady several times brushed at the insect with 
her hand to drive it away. —T. Seen. 
Protective Mrmicry.—At the meeting on 7th May, 
Mr. Froggatt exhibited a small Leaf Insect, apparently 
an immature specimen of the Thorny Phasma (£atato- 
soma tiaratum), sent by Mr. W. G. Foster, Public School, 
Rolland’s Plains. This one differs from the typical forms 
in being much more brilliantly coloured—like grey and 
ereen moss—and very spiny. It is an excellent example 
of protective mimicry in a defenceless insect which feeds 
on moss and lichen-covered tree trunks. It had wandered 
on to the wall of a house, when captured, and even then 
its protective colouration was very striking. 
INTELLIGENCE IN Parrots—Mr. Froggatt read the 
. following note at the April meeting:—At a recent meet- 
ing of the Linnean Society of London, Miss Nina F. 
Layard, F.L.S., read her paper, ‘‘ Wooden Scratching Tools 
Made by an African Parrot,’’ illustrating it by specimens 
and lantern slides. She observed that it is often urged 
that a very long period of experiment was necessary be- 
fore man finally produced anything so advanced as a 
Palwolithie flint tool, and even weapons of an earlier cul- 
ture are not considered sufficiently vague in intention to 
fit the low intellectual capacity attributed to his earliest 
representatives. If it should come to be recognised that 
in the dumb creation there are instances not only of tool- 
users, but of tool-makers, valuable hints may be obtained 
as to the possible capabilities of the human tool-maker in 
the initial stages of his art. 
Notes have been taken by the author of the behaviour 
of a Grey African Parrot. first in choosing out natural 
tools, such as pointed seeds and quills, for use as poll- 
seratchers, later in pointing up a match for the same pur- 
pose, and finally shaping up wood in such a way as to 
appear to warrant the bird’s claim to be described as a 
tool-maker. 
The contention is that if it can be proved that the 
_ Parrot, requiring an implement that would penetrate the 
