1612 THE BUTTERFLIES OF NEW ENGLAND. 



terflies ; otlier insects and especially the caterpillars of certain moths which 

 were then swarming in profusion formed the principal food. Gentry alone 

 has thought that he has obtained proof of the presence of a large number 

 of caterpillars of butterflies in the stomachs of various birds. Birds also, 

 as is well known, attack the perfect insect, but, while I have frequently 

 seen moths snatched up on the wing by birds, I have never been so fortu- 

 nate in all my exjjerience in the field as to see a single buttei-fly in a bird's 

 bill ; and the number of instances that I have been able to find on record 

 in the northern parts of the north temperate zone are exceedingly few, 

 nearly all the prominent instances that have been mentioned having been 

 taken from the tropics, where I have no doubt the perfect butterflies form 

 a not inconsiderable portion of the food of many birds. I have applied to 

 sevei'al persons whose investigations of the contents of bird-stomachs have 

 been very extensive and in all cases the report has been that these con- 

 tents are made up in large measure of small Coleoptera and Orthoptera and 

 of caterpillars of moths. In the case of nocturnal birds, like the whip- 

 jioorwill, night hawk and owls, moths are frequently taken, but the very 

 fact that these birds are nocturnal makes it improbable that they often ob- 

 tain butterflies for their food. Mr. C. J. Maynard, who has recorded 

 the contents of the stomachs of over three thousand liirds, thinks tliat birds 

 seldom devour either butterflies or moths. There are, however, he writes, 

 exceptions ; for instance, the nocturnal birds will eat the larger nocturnal 

 moths ; "swallows, that we should suppose would devour immense quan- 

 tities of the smaller diurnal moths seldom eat them, their food consisting 

 almost entirely of Coleoptei-a and Diptera." But butterflies are certainly 

 sometimes eaten with us, for several cases are on record whei'C capture has 

 been seen and I liave myself noted one instance where Euphoeades troilus 

 was unquestionably captured at no great distance from me by a bird. 

 Other enemies in this state are the Odonata ; "even," says Edwards, "the 

 heavy bodied, great winged Papilios cannot escape these pirates of the 

 air." Wasps, too, are their enemies as the account, above, of the capture 

 of Pieris rapae shows. I once observed a bedraggled Basilarchia arthemis in 

 the middle of August fluttering in the road in the clutches of a large Vespa 

 which had seized the butterfly as it was sunning itself in the path. The 

 two struggled together for some minutes, while I observed them, the 

 crunching of the wasp's mandibles all the while audible ; at last one front 

 wing came ofl'at the base and at once was seized by an ant that had been 

 an excited witness of the contest and carried off'. After the lapse of another 

 minute the other front wing was severed. Still the crunching went on, 

 still the butterfly vainly endeavored by beating its wings to escape its 

 deadly foe. 



The third class of enemies are the parasitic four-winged and two-winged 

 flies. Although no proper attention has been paid to these in our country 



