1904.] PACKARD— ORIGIN OF :\IARKIXC.S OF ORGANISMS. 411 



flies suffer much liarm from birds, though Weismann does not 

 quote his instances. 



But another German naturalist, Eimer, had previously arrived at 

 a different conclusion. In his Ontogenesis der ScJunetlerlitige 

 he remarks: " But who has ever seen a bird flying after butterflies 

 to such an extent that by this means a protective transformation 

 through selection could be attained? " From his own experience 

 Eimer only remembered one case, />., where a redstart {Ruiicillus 

 fhce7iicurvd) seemed to carry a Pieris (?) in its beak. From lepi- 

 dopterists and his students he could only get information regarding 

 scattered cases where butterflies were pursued by birds. 



Cases observed in India and Ceylon. — About the year 1884 a dis- 

 cussion arose in the Bombay papers as to whether birds preyed on 

 butterflies, and the general opinion expressed was that it was com- 

 paratively rare for them to do so. This led Col. Yerbury to notice 

 such occurrences, with the following results. He saw a young king 

 crow {Dicrurus ater) stoop at a big blue Papilio and miss it. The 

 bird did not repeat the attempt. He afterward saw a young king 

 crow stoop at a Vanessa kaschtnirensis, and afier missing it once 

 take it at the second attempt. He aid not notice whether the insect 

 was eaten. He saw a bee-eater {Merops philippinus^ keep flying in 

 front of his carriage and taking Pierinae as they rose in clouds. 

 The bird seemed to select the yellow females, which are rare, the 

 white females being to them probably in the proportion of 100 to i. 

 ** An ashy swallow shrike {Ai'tamus fuscus) caught six Euploea 

 {Crastia eove)." (Marshall and Poulton ) 



Cases observed in Burmah. — Col. Bingham saw a bee-eater 

 {Merops swinhoei) catch a butterfly (Cyrestis) ; more than once it 

 missed a butterfly, but eventually caught it ; of the butterflies 

 hawked and eaten by the bee- eaters there were five species. '' I 

 also particularly noticed tliat the birds never went for a Danais or 

 Euploea or for Papilio macareus and P. xenocles, which are mimics 

 of Danais, though two or three species of Danais, four or five of 

 Euploea, and the two above mentioned mimicking Papilios simply 

 swarmed along the whole road." The large Merops philippinus 

 with some king crows were seen hawking Catopsilia, flying in 

 clouds. The pigmy hawk or falconet {Microhierax coerulescens) 

 was seen seizing a Papilio sarpedon in his claws. This bird also 

 uses butterflies* wings to form a pad for the bottom of its nest made 

 in a hole of a dry tree. 



