Vol. xxiv] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 119 



proved very interesting. Several members remembered having 

 seen butterflies pursued and caught by swallows, sparrows and 

 kingbirds. 



Mr. S. J. Keese gave a very pleasing account of a chrysalis 

 which he watched one day in his mill up in the mining country. 

 A brown butterfly emerged, expanded to maturity, and finally 

 flew out of the window only to be snapped up on the wing by 

 a small flycatcher. Finally Mr. F. Grinnell, Jr., called atten- 

 tion to an article by Harold C. Bryant on "The Relation of 

 Birds to an Insect Outbreak in Northern California during 

 the Spring and Summer of 1911" (7). In many ways this ar- 

 ticle is one of the most vitally interesting ever written when 

 taken in connection with the subject of birds preying on but- 

 terflies. Mr. Bryant is a trained observer and writer, and was 

 detailed by the California State Board of Fish and Game Com- 

 missioners to investigate a remarkable plague of caterpillars 

 followed by a pest of butterflies (V . calif ornica} in the north- 

 ern counties of California, in 1911. His account is so inter- 

 esting in every detail that it is difficult to refrain from quoting 

 whole pages of it. 



The salient features, from our point of view, are as follows : 

 There was an enormous flight of medium-sized butterflies. Of 

 the forty-five species of birds forming the population of this 

 district, none of the smaller ones attacked the butterflies. Of 

 the larger birds only four species preyed on them. Large 

 flocks of red-winged blackbirds (Agelains phoeniceus, subspe- 

 cies) were in the immediate vicinity, but confined themselves 

 almost entirely to vegetable food. But there was one species, 

 Brewer's Blackbird (Euphagus cyanocephalus) , which wrought 

 havoc. Large flocks of these birds followed the butterflies, 

 attacking them as they sat in crowded masses about the moist 

 places in the roads and meadows. At the rate of destruction 

 which he personally witnessed, Mr. Bryant computed that it 

 was possible for each bird to destroy 480 butterflies each day, 

 and, if one-third of these were females, the number of eggs 

 destroyed might number 336,000 in a month. The whole ar- 

 ticle furnishes abundant food for thought. It is to be hoped 



