nOTES 



BIRDS' METHOD OF EATING BUTTERFLIES. 



\\ rrii regard to Mr. C. I. Evans's query in the Deceinl)er 

 (1914) number (Vol. VIII., p. 171), one evening in August, 1904, 

 I watched a pair of Stonechats {Saxicola t. hihernans) near 

 Beachy Head catching chalk-hill blue butterflies {Agriades 

 corydon), and feeding their fully-fiedged young on them, in 

 an elder tree. After catching the butterflies they settled 

 on a branch and nipped the wings off. The ground under 

 the tree was strewn with the severed wings. 



On July 2Sth. 1909, at Heme Bay Station. Kent. I watched 

 a pair of House-Sparrows (Passer d. domcsticus) bring meadow- 

 brown butterflies {Epinephele janira) to their yovmg in a 

 nest in the ornamental ironwork at the top of one of the 

 platform posts. Before feeding the young they severed 

 the wings, which floated down to the platform. 



I have made observations for a number of years and in 

 most cases have found that l)ir(ls nip off the wings of butterflies 

 and moths before eating the bodies. C. W. Colthrup. 



ADDER EATING YOUNG BIRDS. 



At the foot of the Downs near Folkestone, I have from 

 time to time had under observation a luunber of nests of 

 small birds, built on and in the sides of a bank, and had 

 often been unable to account for the sudden disappearance 

 of the young until one evening I found the solution. While 

 walking along this bank I met a fisherman with an adder 

 on the end of a ])iece of string. He had been Avatching a 

 Skylark's nest in the hope of taking the fully-Hedged young, 

 and on visiting the nest found that the adder had killed the 

 four young, and had already swallowed one, which could be 

 seen iialf-way down its body. C. W. Coi/nuur. 



RUSTIC BUNTINC; IX SUSSEX. 



A MALE Rustic Bunting [Emheriza rnstica) was shot at 

 Westfield, Sussex, on December 4th, 1914. There are two 

 previous records for the county, one near Brighton, October 

 2:ird. ISOT, and one. also at Westfield. on September 22nd. 

 ]<H)2. J. B. Nichols. 



