@excr) 
Corvus splendens was found greedily to devour any edible 
butterflies thrown to it. This evidence is supported by that 
kindly furnished to me by Mr. F'. Lewis, of the Ceylon Forest 
Service, who has for many years been familiar with the ways 
of birds in the jungle, vid. :—that he has seen Merops viridis 
and M. philippinus occasionally take small white and yellow 
butterflies (Terias, spp.), and the latter bee-eater and M, 
swinhoti frequently capture Catopsilia, especially when these 
butterflies are travelling in thousands along the river-valleys. 
Mr. Lewis also gives Buchanga leucopygialis as a very active 
hunter of butterflies on the wing. In England I have 
noticed a swallow hunting one of the common ‘‘ Whites” 
(apparently Pieris brassice), and also three sparrows for some 
time chase and eventually capture a female Mpinephile janira ; 
while at the Cape I have seen Miscus collaris, the common 
shrike of the colony, seize in succession several newly- 
emerged Papilio lyaus on the wing. 
In Mr. Skertchley’s paper, ‘“‘On Butterflies’ Hnemies,’’* 
he gives a list (p. 485) of no fewer than twenty-three 
species of butterflies belonging to five different subfamilies, 
which he observed in Borneo with both hindwings mutilated 
in the same manner, as if a piece had been bitten out while 
the insect was at rest—but this description of mutilation he 
attributes, not to the assaults of birds, but to those of lizards 
and perhaps small mammals. I see nothing, however, to 
lead us to conclude that birds do not attack butterflies when 
at rest, especially when settled on flowers, foliage, etc., with 
closed and erect or pendant wings; it is highly probable, 
indeed, that they would mark down a settling butterfly and 
make direct for it. It seems to me likely that most of the 
destruction of butterflies by birds is not effected by the 
difficult chase of these wavering and erratic or often very 
eapid flyers in the open, but is carried on mainly against the 
slowly-flying bulkier females while engaged in depositing 
their ova, usually among the fohage of trees, undergrowth, 
or herbage, where they would be almost unnoticed by the 
collector. An equally if not more dangerous time for 
* Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (6), iti., pp. 477-485 (1889). 
