110 THE ENEMIES OF BUTTERFLIES [ch. 



stomachs of large numbers of insectivorous birds in a 

 tropical area would go some way towards deciding the 

 matter, but at present such information is lacking. 

 We have to rely upon the existing observations of birds 

 attacking butterflies in the wild state, and upon certain 

 feeding experiments made with captive birds. 



Observations on birds attacking butterflies where 

 mimetic forms occur have been made almost entirely 

 in certain parts of Africa, in India, and in Ceylon. For 

 Africa, Marshall has collected some forty-six obser- 

 vations of which almost half are concerned with 

 Pierines. The remainder include four instances of 

 attacks on species of Acraea, a genus which on the 

 mimicry theory must be regarded as among the most 

 unpalatable of butterflies. 



The records from the Indo-Malayan region (prin- 

 cipally India and Ceylon) are somewhat more numerous 

 and here again more than one-third of them refer to 

 Pierines. Among the others are records of the dis- 

 tasteful forms Euploea core, E. rafflesii, Acraea violae, 

 and Papilio hector being taken and devoured. 



There is one interesting record which seems to 

 suggest that Swinhoe's Bee-Eater {Melittophagus swin- 

 hoei) may exercise that discrimination in the butterflies 

 it attacks which is demanded on the mimicry theory. 

 Lt.-Col. Bingham on one occasion in Burma noticed 

 this species hawking butterflies. He records that they 

 took Papilio erithonius, P. sarpedon, Charaxes athamas, 

 Cyrestis thyodamas, and Terias hecabe, and probably also 

 species of the genera Prioneris, Hebomoia (Pierines), 



