400 PACKARD— ORIGIN OF MARKINGS OF ORGANISMS. [Dec. 2, 



Brandon, Vt., where the pests covered everything. Nuthatches and 

 downy woodpeckers eat them when they find them at rest. 



*' Chipping sparrows — in my experience — will chase almost any 

 butterfly and often kill kinds they do not seem to eat. I have 

 watched the chase and seen the dead butterflies which fell to the 

 ground. These sparrows seem to enjoy the chase, turning, twist- 

 ing, tumbling in the air, and I have seen them chase a blowing 

 dead leaf in the same way, following it until it touched the ground. 

 " I have seen English sparrows catch J^. pandoriis and achemon 

 moths, having first hunted them out of a woodbine, bite aff the 

 wings and carry tlie bodies to trees or roofs, presumably for food, 

 though I have not seen the act of eating them. I have not seen 

 this many times." 



'' Nuthatches, black and white creepers, brown creepers, eat the 

 noctuid moths which hide in crevices of the bark and under the 

 eaves of houses or piazzas, in the blinds or folds of awnings. I 

 have often watched nuthatches go thoroughly over the cornice of 

 our house, dropping one pair of moth wings after another, then go 

 the length of the gutter-pipe on the piazza roof. They are the 

 most methodical and thorough hunters I know among birds except 

 the little summer warbler, which will clear a pea vine of aphids so 

 that not one could I find in a careful search. It cleans one vine 

 before going to another unless startled away. Of course these are 

 only my personal experiences, and I learned years ago that exper- 

 iences vary much, even with the same species, under different 

 conditions. 



"Your paper seems to show a lack of belief in the value of ' imi- 

 tation ' as a protection to butterflies, and rejoices me, for observa- 

 tion compels me to believe that too much value has been placed on 

 this as on the theory that flower colors please insects." 



The ornithologists appear to have had the same experience as the 

 entomologists. 



Dr. J. A. Allen writes me under date of January 31, 1902 : "In 

 regard to birds catching butterflies, I have consulted with Mr. 

 Chapman about the matter, and neither of us recall having seen 

 birds capture butterflies except in rare sporadic instances. It is 

 certainly not a habit of birds to prey upon butterflies." 



Dr. S. H. Scudder,^ in 1870, writes: " Although I have hunted 

 butterflies for fifteen years, I confess I have never seen one in a 

 ^Nature, iii, 1870, p. 147. 



