96 Mr. (I F. M. Swynnerton on 



claws, pinned it thereby to the ground. The method is one 

 that is more likely to have been employed in the bird's wild 

 state in relation to grasshoppers and fast-running ground- 

 baetles than to butterflies. That the rather larger butterflies 

 are well protected against birds by their broad expanse o£ 

 wing was well illustrated in what preceded the above capture. 

 That such tough butterflies as the largest species of Cliaraxes 

 are additionally well protected against such relatively weak 

 and small-billed birds as Crateropus was well shown by what 

 followed that capture, as also by difficulties of the same kind 

 experienced by my Bulbuls, Pycnonotus and Phyllastrephus. 

 The two points together tempt one to a brief discussion of the 

 attitude of birds to butterflies. That they do attack thom, 

 and that very largely, I am convinced through having 

 myself witnessed in the field many hundreds of attacks by 

 very various (and in some cases very unlikely) birds in a 

 single very circumscribed locality, and through having seen 

 damage of a kind that one sometimes finds in the wings of 

 nearly every high-grade butterfly being actually inflicted by 

 birds both wild and tame (for instances of the latter see 

 experiments 538 — wing-damage to Danakla — and 553). Mr. 

 Marshall, too, has collected and published (Trans. Ent. Soc, 

 Sept. iy09) about 600 records from various parts of the 

 world, including some of a very striking nature. At the 

 same time the pleasanter butterflies are possessed of great 

 wariness and a difficult flight, while the brittle wing ever 

 interposed between themselves and an enemy must frequently 

 provide the latter with disappointment. So that, as Mar- 

 shall long ago suggested, it is probable that the average small 

 bird not possessed of the extreme skill in aerial capture that 

 characterizes Bee-eaters, Swallows, Drougos, and some Fly- 

 catchers will probably make most of his attacks on butterflies 

 when he finds them resting, engaged in some absorbing- 

 occupation, passing quite close to his perch, or for some 

 other reason in or beside cover. This, and the fact that 

 butterflies go to ground and stay there when at all system- 

 atically attacked by birds, probably, with lack of special 

 observation, accounts for so few attacks on them being 



