68 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 85 



The tiger beetles " are avoided on account of their ferocity " 

 (Bastin, Insects, their hfe-histories and habits, p. 151, 1913), and have 

 been referred to as " dreaded insects " ( Poulton, Colours of animals, 

 p. 252, iSgo), but what creatures capable of feeling dread so regard 

 these beetles is unexplained ; certainly the facts indicate they are not 

 birds. The 649 records included in the present tabulation are dis- 

 tributed among 99 species of birds. Eight species have 10 or more 

 records each, two others, the eastern meadowlark and eastern kingbird, 

 over 20, the crow more than 60, and the crow blackbird 94. No fewer 

 than 25 larvae of tiger beetles were found in a single stomach of an 

 eastern bluebird, and 156 adults in that of a sparrow hawk and 164 in 

 that of a long-billed curlew. If tiger beetles ever evade attacks by 

 birds it is by celerity of motion rather than by any special defenses. 



With respect to Carabidae or ground beetles, Forbes in his report 

 on the food of thrushes may have given some comfort to protective 

 adaptation theorists when he said : " We note, however, a remarkable 

 deficiency of the highly colored genera — such as Galerita, Bracliyiius. 

 Lebia, Platynus, Chlaenhis, etc., which are either absent, or found but 

 rarely in these birds' (thrushes, bluebird) food. Evidently these more 

 showy beetles are protected by some more efTective means than ob- 

 scurity of color." (Forbes, S. A., Bull. Illinois State Lab. Nat. Hist., 

 vol. I, no. 6, p. 57, May, 1883.) 



However, this statement is but another instance of the danger of 

 generalizing from insufficient data. In the study of the food of biixls 

 and other animals we are always adding to the list of species eaten 

 and to the number of times they are taken ; the movement is never in 

 the contrary direction. We are constantly finding enemies of forms 

 previously held to be more or less exempt, and usually to an extent 

 which more than compensates for previous lack of knowledge on the 

 subject. 



In the present instance such progress in knowledge since Forbes' 

 study is indicated by 535 records of the capture of Chlaenius by 

 41 species of birds, 254 for Platynus by 55 species, 44 records for 

 Galerita by 13 species, 39 for Lchia by 21 species, and eight for 

 Brachynus by seven species ; figures more or less in harmony with the 

 relative abundance in individuals of these groups. In this connection 

 it may be well to note also F. H. Chittenden's remark that Lebia 

 grandis " is protected by its warning color from rapacious birds." 

 (Farmers' Bull. 1020, U. S. Dep. Agr., p. 16, 1919.) Six of the 39 

 Lebia records here cited are for grandis, and the writer submits that 

 six records for this single species out of a total of 85,322 for all 



