Production of Mimdic Resemhlances among ButUrjiics. 347 



perch with a ' meadow-brown ' in its bill. The but- 

 teifly was held by the wings only, body outwards, 

 and the bird had hardly reached the perch when the 

 insect escaped and disappeared behind some foliage, 

 with the flycatcher again in hot pursuit " : C. F. M. 

 Swynnerton (in a letter dated 1, viii, 1907).— (/) " Mrs. 

 Blackburn [of Barrow Hill, Henfield] made the 

 remark that their 'meadow-browns' {janira) were 

 so caught and eaten by the flycatchers as to be quite 

 scarce ; when one of them appeared it was generally 

 snapped up, and sometimes two flycatchers would 

 help each other in the capture. The common white 

 butterflies (rapae, etc.), were sometimes, but rarely, 

 attacked " : F. Merrifield (in a letter to Prof. Poulton, 

 dated 7, viii, 1907). — (m) "I was walking round the 

 paddock [New Barnet, Herts.] yesterday when a large 

 cabbage butterfly came flying across it. There were 

 three Flycatchers (31. grisola) in sight. The butterfly 

 passed the first without being attacked, but settled 

 in the grass just in front of the second and about ten 

 yards from it. The bird, which had been watching it, 

 continued to do so for two or three seconds longer 

 and then flew down at it, but failed to secure the 

 butterfly, and rising, tvirned and again swooped down 

 on the spot. This time it hovered for a few seconds 

 while hunting for the butterfly, but the latter had 

 evidently got well down under the grass, and the 

 flycatcher returned to its perch discomfited " : C. F. 

 M. Swynnerton (letter dated 16, viii, 1907).— (?0 

 "Mrs. Watt-Smyth told me that two or three weeks 

 ago, when she was walking in the garden here [New 

 Barnet] with my sister and cousin, they saw a fly- 

 catcher capture a white butterfly " : C. F. M. Swyn- 

 nerton (letter dated 19, viii, '07).— (o) "Spotted 

 flycatchers seen on August 1st near Canterbury 

 catching and eating meadow-brown butterfly": F. C. 

 Snell, " Country-Side," 1907, p. 290.— (|;) " On an 

 Arabian burial ground, below Las Glacieres Blida [in 

 Algeria], I saw at noon a small brown bird (doubtless 

 the grey flycatcher, which is plentiful there) catch a 

 specimen of Pieris rapae on the wing " : Dr. Karl 

 Jordan (in a letter to Prof Poulton, dated 21, ix, 

 1908). — (5)"A water wagtail [Dr. Longstaff informs 

 me that this is an error, and that the bird was a grey 

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