AFRICAN BIRDS EATING BUTTERFLIES 283 



indirect evidence supplied by injured specimens of freshly 

 emerged butterflies is illustrated in Plates ix, x, and xi, 

 and described on pages 366-75 of the paper. The direct 

 evidence (pp. 357-66) is so important that, with the kind 

 consent of Mr. Marshall, Colonel Yerbury, Colonel Bing- 

 ham, and the Council of the Entomological Society of 

 London, it is reprinted below : 



12. RECORDS OF ATTACKS ON LEPIDOPTERA, ESPECIALLY 

 BUTTERFLIES, BY WILD SOUTH AFRICAN BIRDS, by 

 G. A. K. Marshall. 



1897. March 28. While out collecting at Malvern, 

 Durban, Natal, I saw a Paradise flycatcher (Terpsiphone 



perspicillata) catch a specimen of Eronia cleodora. The 

 butterfly was hovering over a flower when the bird 

 swooped down, seized it with its feet, and carried it off. 



1898. Salisbury, February 27. Saw a Marico wood- 

 shrike (Bradyornis mariquensis) dart down from a tree 

 and catch a Sarangesa eliminata (Holl.), which was sitting 

 with outspread wings on a small plant. 



March 6. Saw a flycatcher (Pachyprora molitor) make 

 several futile attempts to catch a Tarucus plinius which 

 was circling round the bush on which it sat. 



November 23. Saw a bush kingfisher (Halcyon chelicu- 

 tensis) catch and eat two butterflies, viz. Junonia cebrene 

 and Catopsilia florella, both of which were captured 

 when feeding. 



December i. C. F. M. Swynnerton saw a drongo 

 (Buchanga assimilis) fly past him with a white butterfly 

 in its beak, probably C. florella. 



December 15. Remains of Papilio dcmodocus found in 

 the stomach of a cuckoo (Coccystes coffer). 



1899. Salisbury, January i. While watching an Atella 

 phalantha hovering over a bush of its food-plant, a Para- 

 dise flycatcher (Terpsiphone perspicillata] darted past, and 

 with a loud snap of its beak tried to catch the butterfly in 

 its swoop. The latter escaped, however, and on following 

 it up I found that the tip of one hind-wing had been cut 



