351 



PELLETS EJECTED BY INSECT-EATING BIRDS AFTER 

 A MEAL OF BUTTERFLIES. 



By C. F. M. SWYNNERTON, ClIIKIXDA. 



Professor Poulton read a communication by C. F. M. 

 SwYNNERTON, F.E.S., Contained in the following letter, written 

 June 27th, 1912, from Chirinda, Gazaland, S.E. Rhodesia. Pro- 

 fessor Poulton also exhibited the pellets referred to, together 

 with set examples of the butterflies named. 



" I am sending you by this mail a few pellets that have 

 been ejected by birds. Those pellets that are intact — from 

 Dicrurus afer Licht. (African Drongo) ; Lananus starki W. L. 

 Scl. (Southern Grey-headed Bush-shrike) ; Lantus collaris L. 

 (Fiskaal Shrike) — contain no butterfly remains. I merely send 

 them in case you should be interested to see the pellets of 

 Passerine birds. The other pellet from Dicrurus afer Licht. 

 (African Drongo), ejected October 12th, 1911, does contain 

 butterfly remains. I have just examined a portion of it in 

 order to get an idea as to what sort of a sample I was 

 sending you, and it does not strike me as being as good 

 as many that I have seen. Even here, however, it seems to 

 me that any one unused to the appearance of butterfly remains 

 in pellets and making an examination, especially a rough one, 

 with the naked eye, might well fail to recognise a considerable 

 portion of the débris. Put it, however, under a lens strong 

 enough to show the scales and sockets, and the difliculty vanishes. 

 This particular pellet should contain the remains of twenty-six 

 butterflies and eight flies. 



" The flies were : 



One Tabanus sp. nov. (my No. 3,689, sent to GuY 



Marsh.all). 

 Fi\'e HcVDiatopota sani^uiaana Aust. (.Vt first deter- 

 mined as this species by Mr. V.. E. AusTEX, but 



