Note 73 — Chapter IX

A few further experiments with the birds of this region were carried out by Manders[73] in Ceylon. The results are perhaps to be preferred to Finn's, as the birds were at liberty. Manders found that the Brown Shrike (Lanius cristatus) would take butterflies which were pinned to a paling. In this way it made off with the mimetic females of Hypolimnas bolina and H. misippus, as well as with Danais chrysippus and Acraea violae which were successively offered to it. Evidently this species had no repugnance to unpalatable forms. Manders also found that a young Mynah allowed complete liberty in a large garden would eat such forms as Acraea violae and Papilio hector. As the result of his experience Manders considers that the unpalatability of butterflies exhibiting warning coloration has been assumed on insufficient data, and he is further inclined to doubt whether future investigations will reveal any marked preference in those birds which are mainly instrumental in the destruction of butterflies.