SWITZERLAND AND THE BLACK FOKEST. 265 



the beginning of August. I have seen it flying in thousands at dusk, 

 but never on the wing by day. A few may be found settled on the 

 stone walls, but the greater number seem to rest with wings partially 

 outspread among the stems of the heather, where they are very difficult 

 to see. They generally drop when disturbed, but may occasionally be 

 beaten out of the heather by day. I think, therefore, that there can 

 be no doubt that the moths in question must have been captured by 

 the Pipits when at rest, and also that their resemblance to the brown 

 interlacing stems of the heather must be of great service in evading 

 discovery. Of course, the point which remains to be cleared up is 

 whether the young Meadow Pipits would have accepted il/. didi/mata 

 as an article of diet, as one can scarcely imagine that the number of 

 Pipits with Cuckoos as foster-children would be sufficiently numerous 

 to cause any struggle for existance to so common a moth as M. didy- 

 inata, though, on the other hand, protective resemblance may to some 

 extent account for its numbers. 



I think that these two instances go to prove that certain birds do 

 search for, and prey upon, moths when at rest, though I agree with 

 Lieut. -Col. Manders that movement is more immediately fatal to them. 

 But even in the case of an insect which first attracts the attention of 

 a bird or reptile by movement, it is at least conceivable that protective 

 resemblance might still be of service to it. In the spring of 1901, 

 while waiting for a steamer at Argegno, on the Lago di Como, my 

 attention was attracted to three large brown lizards which were abso- 

 lutely motionless on the trunk of a tree. So well did they harmonise 

 with their environment that I only discovered the first by accident, 

 and the other two by very careful scrutiny. (By-the-bye, I should 

 certainly imagine that this was a case of aggressive resemblance, as 

 the little lizards so common among the leafy walls on the lake-side 

 were green and grey, and the larger hedge lizards a vivid green.) 

 While I was watching them a large bluebottle-fly alighted on the 

 trunk about eighteen inches from one of them. The reptile immediately 

 became convulsively active ; there was what I can only describe as a 

 wriggly brown flash, and the fly was gone — doubtless to the entire 

 satisfaction of the lizard ! Now the fly was absolutely distinct on the 

 bark of the tree, but is it not at least possible that in the case of an 

 insect which, upon alighting, so harmonised with its environment as 

 to become practically indistinguishable from it, the lizard might have 

 so miscalculated a rush of eighteen inches as to have alarmed the 

 insect without actually capturing it ? 



Switzerland and the Black Forest. 



By DOUGLAS H. PEARSON, F.E.S. 

 There will no doubt be wails from disappointed butterfly hunters 

 this year, owing to the wet and sunless season, so a few notes from one 

 who was more fortunate may be cheering. Stirred up by Mr. Warren's 

 description of Freiburg in Breisgau, we found ourselves there on the 

 morning of June 27th, having gone straight through from London, and 

 in the afternoon set out for the Moss Wald, with visions of l^^mperors 

 galore. We saw very few, but were more fortunate on the next day, 

 and managed to take a short series of Apatara iris, A. ilia and var. 



