358 Mr. G. A. K. Marsliall on 



complete Tcrias. The thorax and ahdo- 

 men were quite uninjured, but the tips 

 of the fore-wings were gone. 

 April 2(). I was watching a drongo hawking insects 

 from the top of a dead tree ; there were 

 many Ficriu.v about, chiefly Teracolus 

 and Bclenois, but the bird paid not 

 the least attention to them. At last 

 a Bclenois came by which had its wings 

 very much shattered, so that its flight 

 was weak and erratic ; the drongo 

 observed it at once, and swooped down on 

 it, but I saw tlie butterfly drop into the 

 long grass. Whether it was injured by 

 the bird I could not say, as I was unable 

 to find it, and I did not see it rise again. 

 This episode would point to the conclu- 

 sion tliat the fact that birds refrain from 

 pursuing butterflies may be due rather to 

 the difficulty in catching them, than to 

 any widespread distastefulness on the 

 part of these insects. 

 1900. 



C. F. M. Swynnerton wrote from Gazaland : 

 "In March [1900] I saw a Pratineola 

 torquafa [South African stonechat] in 

 chase of Tarticus 'plinins. Had it not 

 been frightened off by coming face to 

 face with me, it would undoubtedly have 

 caught it. I think I told you long ago 

 of liaviniT found the wings of a lot of 

 butterflies, chiefly P. corinncus, below the 

 branch of a tree on which some swallows 

 were constantly settling." 

 May 13. Salisbury. Saw a drongo {Buchanga as&i- 

 riiilis) swoop from a tree and catch, what 

 I took to be an injured Be/aiois, which it 

 dropped almost at once. I marked the 

 insect down, and found it to be a common 

 white moth of the distasteful genus Dia- 

 crisia (D. maculosa). 

 1901. 

 Dec. 17. Melsetter, 5500 feet, Gazaland. A speci- 

 men of the large, conspicuous, Hypsid 



