306 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [June, 



antiqua, Cucullia verbasci, 51 and Hybernia defoliaria, are known to be 

 eaten by British wild birds. The other eight species included in the 

 table comprise three others disregarded by caged birds, two of which 

 are also eaten by British wild birds. These eight, however, were 

 used chiefly in experiments with lizards, and four of them were 

 accepted as well as refused upon trial. Of the four only refused, 

 one (Porthesia auriflua) was eaten by hungry lizards in Poulton's 

 experiments of 1887. 52 Another, Pieris brassicce, was eaten more 

 often than refused in Pocock's experiments (reviewed later), and a 

 third which was rejected by frogs and lizards is known to be eaten 

 by nestlings of Parus major. 



Exception may be taken to remarks about some of the species 

 listed in this table. For instance, J)eilephila euphorbia? was eaten 

 by a captive lizard, and Newman says, "sea-gulls and terns devour 

 them in numbers." We may add to the list of enemies the mause- 

 bussard, on the authority of Schuster. 53 Poulton's comment on 

 this larvae is: "The correlation of a startling appearance with some 

 unpleasant attribute must probably have existed once if not now. 

 Have we a case in which hunger or opportunity have caused the 

 enemies to neglect the latter and therefore to benefit by the former? " 

 (p. 199). We cannot so conclude, unless we admit also that similar 

 warning coloration (D. euphorbia? is "black, red, and yellow or 

 white") would lose its meaning (admitting for the purposes of argu- 

 ment that it has a meaning) to the same enemies in all other cases. 



It is of interest to note that Hybernia defoliaria, included in this 

 table because disregarded by captive birds, was found in the stomachs 

 of three species of British birds by Robert Newstead. 54 Schuster 

 (I. c.) records many species of birds as enemies of this larva as well 

 as of H. brumata. 



Table II includes four larvae which only become conspicuous when 

 approached and detected; one is not shown to be unpalatable to 

 anything, one was both eaten and refused by lizards, and another 

 was eaten by at least two species of birds and avoided without trial 

 by two or more other species. The fourth species was refused by 

 lizards and poultry, but eaten by nestling great tits. 



One of the larvae listed in this table has been made the basis of some 



61 See particularly the note, "Do birds eat the larvae of Cucullia?" by H. 

 D'Orville, Entomologists' Monthly Mag., VI, June, 1869, p. 16. 

 52 Rep. British A. A. S., 1887 (1888), p. 764. 

 63 Ent. Bl. Niirnberg, 5, Nr. 7, July 15, 1909. 

 i4 Suppl. Jour. Bd. Agr. Bond., XV, No. 9, December, 1908. 



