100 THE entomologist's RECORD, 



the birds carry any wings away. Both parents brought a grey moth 

 about the size of L. Iialterata. On one occasion the female 

 brought three in her bill at once. I was busy over other matters and 

 I could not keep count, but whenever the birds came under my notice 

 returning to the nest they had at least one moth. Lobophora halterata 

 was the most likely as the place was suitable, the insect was fully out 

 and the species brought to the nest seemed to me to be halterata. If 

 it was not that I think it must have been Tephrosia bistortata. The 

 insects were obtained hy searching the large upper limbs of the oaks 

 in the vicinity of a birch copse. I could find no L. halterata sitting 

 on the birch myself, although on the previous day I had seen several 

 and I put that down to the fact that the night had been absolutely 

 still, under which condition insects fly high and settle high. 



I was in the vicinity of the nest from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. that is, 

 about 60-100 feet away most of the time. Observed at Marlpits, 

 Dorset. (E. H. Curtis corroborates this.) 



10. Emberiza xchnenideiin (Reed Bunting). June 2nd, 1912. — A 

 grey moth about the appearance of Apauica didj/nia. — The bird was 

 feeding full-groAvn young and found the moth by searching in standing 

 rushes and long grass. Subsequently it brought a green Noctiia 

 caterpillar, I was unable to keep track of the bird, as when it found it w£|,s 

 being watched the young spread and it skulked in the rank herbage 

 and kept out of sight. Any- way we failed to identify the moth, as it 

 was given to the j^oung bird which swallowed it so promptly. 

 Observed at Kniton near Wimborne. (E. H. Curtis first saw this and 

 called to me " What moth has the schoenicleus in its bill ? ") 



11. P. doDiesticiis (The Sparrow). May 4th, 1912. Daai/chira 

 pudibnnda $ s, two cripples. — Exposed at Poole on a dark apple stump ; 

 one taken after eight hours, the second 48 hours. I consider that the 

 above cited instances support very materially the view that birds do 

 search for insect food, and that Lepidoptera are amongst the orders 

 attacked at rest. 



12. Erithaca rubecnla (Robin). February 16th, 1913. — Tnrtricodes 

 hi/eiiiana taken off an oak tree-trunk at Kniton. I saw the robin sit up 

 on a holly stump with a lujcmana in its bill. I said to my brother, 

 "Did you see that robin ?" He replied " Yes, it has just taken an 

 insect off that oak tree-trunk." 1 said " Watch it, it has gone behind 

 me"; in a few minutes it returned to the same stump with a second 

 Tortricodefi hyemana. I said to my brother, " W^here did he get that 

 one ? " My brother said, " Off' the same oak." We then hunted the 

 trunk and found a third specimen sitting on some dead honeysuckle 

 that twined round the tree-trunk." 



My brother on reading Lieut. -Col. Manders' paper said "Anyway 

 the sparrows hunt our walls for Mdanippe finctaata, and if birds don't 

 hunt systematically why do they hover along rail fences looking under 

 rails ? They do not do it for amusement." 



It is the fact that on many occasions we have observed birds 

 hovering along rail-fences and looking under rails. This position, as 

 everyone must know, is a favourite position of rest with many JS'octiiae. 



* NoTE.^This was a robin out in a wood away from houses, but robins are 

 notoriously bold in the presence of man, and this one subsequently came to us for 

 crumbs as we were having tea sitting on a bank close to the oak tree above referred 

 to. Most birds would not have dared to catch a second insect so close to us. 



