The Bionomics of South African Lisccts. 861 



places with moderate or small rainfall, such as Campbell- 

 pore, Pooiia, and Aden. 



"In my opinion an all-sufficient reason for the rarity of 

 the occurrence exists in the fact that in butterflies the 

 edible matter is a minimum, while the inedible wings, 

 etc., are a maximum." 



[See Proc. Zool. Soc. 1887, p. 210, where Lepidoptera 

 and especially butterflies are spoken of in almost exactly 

 these terms, as a suggested explanation of the fact that 

 lizards, although they eat them, greatly prefer flies or 

 cryptic larvoe. — E. B. P.] 



14. Records of Attacks on Butterflies, etc., ry 

 WILD Burmese Birds, by Colonel C. T. Bingham. 



[Colonel Bingham has kindly sent me the following 

 extracts from his 1878 diaries, for incorporation in the 

 present memoir, — E. B. P.] 



" A2)'}'il 23.— Marched from Kawkaraik to Thinganyina- 

 ung, fourteen miles. Started about 7.45, rather late as 

 there was some difficulty in collecting the elephants this 

 morning. . . . The road, a mere jungle path, followed 

 the course of the Akya Chaung, a feeder of the Haundraw 

 River, and crossed the little stream some twenty or more 

 times in the first six or seven miles before turning up the 

 hill to the Taungyah Pass in the Dawnat Range, From 

 the outskirts of Kawkaraik right up to Thinganyinaung 

 on the other side of the pass, the road goes tlirough dense 

 evergreen forest, and consequently the collecting is very 

 good on this road, both for insects and birds. To-day, the 

 day being hot, butterflies, bees, and dragon-flies swarmed, 

 and at every opening of the Chaung I found crowds seated 

 on the damp sand apparently sucking up the moisture. 

 Collecting as I went, it was past 11 o'clock before I got to 

 the foot of the Pass, I was hot and a bit tired, so I sat 

 down on a fallen tree to rest, just before crossing the Akya 

 Chaung for the last time. I had not been seated many 

 minutes looking at the swarms of butterflies, bees, and 

 dragon-flies, which were flitting about or sitting on the 

 sands, when my attention was attracted by a bird, a bee- 

 eater {Merops snnnhoci), which swooping down from a tree 

 overhead caught a butterfly, a CyrcstAs, within a few^ paces 

 of me. The bee-eater seemed to catch the butterfly with 

 ease, and I distinctly heard the snap of its bill. Then 

 holding the butterfly crossways the bird flew back to the 



