288 MIMICR\' AND NATURAL SELECTION 



watch iniL(. The birds seemed to swoop onl\ for the insects 

 fl^'iiii,^ about, never at those on the orround. A drove of 

 pack bullocks, with their shoutini* Shan drivers, comin^r 

 down the road frii^ditened the bee-eaters, and they flew 

 off. I ij^ot uj) and j)repared to start uphill, when it struck 

 me that it would be interestiuL^ to see what species of 

 butterfly had been taken by the bee-eaters, so I set to 

 work and collected all the loose win<rs 1 could And. I did 

 not get man}-, for the underi^rowth was very dense, and 

 the wings dropped in it were difflcult to tuul. Also the 

 place swarmed with ants ; I could see them on all sides 

 carrying off whole wings, or portions bitten out of them. 

 Again, I was pressed for time, so that I managed to get 

 tocrether onlv nineteen wincrs, most of them odd ones, 

 luckilw ... I have just sorted out and j)ut away my 

 collections of the dav. Ihe butterflies hawked and eaten 

 l)y the bee-eaters belong to the following species Papilio 

 cn't/iiuiiits, P. sarpcdoi, C/iaraxcs atha))ias, Lyrcstis tkyo- 

 diDtnis, and Tcrias hccabc. A meaLrre list, for I am certain 

 I saw the bee-eaters swoop for and catch Prioncris^ Hcbo- 

 moia, yiinonia, and Precis. I also particularly noticed 

 that the birds never went for a Danais or Euploca, or 

 for Papilio niacarcus, and 1\ xowclcs, which are mimics 

 of Panais, though two or three species of Panais, 

 f(^ur or Ave of Eup/oea, and the two above-mentioned 

 mimicking Papilios simply swarmed along the whole 

 road.' ^ 



Looking through my diaries I fmd more scattered notes 

 of my having witnessed birds swoop for and catch butter- 

 flies and moths, but these were solitary incidents, and 

 only slight mention is made of them in the diaries, with 

 one exception, which is given below : — 



' Camp Wabosakhan, Pcccmbcr 3, 1891. . . . Going 

 through some fairly open jungle close to the main road I put 

 up a Mclanitis zifcnius, which fluttered across the road and 

 was swooped at by a king-crow ij^icrurus), but missed ; 

 the butterfly dodged, got to the other side of the road 



' I did not then realize the importance of my fmd, or I should have 

 spared more time lor the collection of the fallen wings of the butter- 

 flies, and taken more care of them. — C. T. B. 



