352 Mr. G. A. K. Marshall on Birds as a Factor in the 



attacked. Lycaenidae, Hesperiidae and Cocnonympha 

 he considered to be too small for the Kestrels, and he 

 had only on one occasion observed the capture of a 

 female Hcspcria. actaeon. — {d) " At Beachy Head in 

 the past summer and in 1906 I watched a Kestrel 

 feeding on this species [Folyommatus coi^ydon']. It 

 hovered just over the grass stems and picked them 

 off one after the other while at rest " : C. W. Colthrup, 

 " Country-Side," 1908, p. 2G7. 



84. Fal CO snhhuteo, Jj. (Jlohhy). The stomach of a specimen 

 contained "the body of a small Locustid, a middle- 

 sized butterfly and about 120 brownish-black ants 

 {Formica fusca, L.) " : Prof. Salzraann, " Mon. Deutsch 

 Ver. Schutz Vog.," 1906, p. 511. 



35. Birds not identified : — 



{a) A bird captured and ate a specimen of Argynnis 

 adippe: Colthrup, " Entom." 1903, p. 173 (England). 

 — (&) "During many years of entomological work I 

 have on only ten occasions actually observed birds 

 pursuing species of Vanessa or Picris under natural 

 conditions": C. Frings, " Soc. Ent. Zurich," xv, 1900, 

 p. 76. — (f) " I have frequently seen birds catch and 

 devour the unprotected species [of butterflies] on the 

 wing": A. G. Butler, "Nature," iii, 1870, p. 166 

 (England). — (^)" In this country it was not an un- 

 common sight to see the Pontiac pursued by birds, 

 and sometimes escaping by means of their tortuous 

 or dodging flight": H. W. Bates, Proc. Ent. Soc. L., 

 1864 (3), ii, p. 22 (England).— (c) "Evidence of the 

 attacks of birds was supplied by Mr. Fred Birch in a 

 specimen of Thecla queorus from Lancashire (August 

 1898). A bird was seen to dart at the spot where the 

 butterfly was settled, and the insect, when captured, 

 exhibited symmetrical injuries, such as would be 

 caused by a snip taken out of both wings when in 

 contact in the position of rest " : Prof. E. B. Poulton, 

 "Oxford Univ. Gazette," 1905, p. 566.— (/) "No one has 

 been able to adduce any examples of a bird eating a 

 butterfly, beyond a few cases where the food was 

 either the ' meadow-brown or large heath (F. janira 

 or F. titJionus), or the green hairstreak ' — out of thou- 

 sands of observers, entomologists and ornithologists": 

 H. P. R., " Country Life," March 14, 1908, p. 384. 

 [The evidence here collected sufficiently demonstrates 



