171 



MISCELLANEOUS FACTS. 



SOME MOTHS REJECTED BY BIRDS. 



MR BLYTH mentions, in the Field Naturalist's 

 Magazine* a singular circumstance, which is quite 

 new to us, namely, that the Magpie Moth (Abraxas 

 Grossulariata) is rejected as food by various in- 

 sectiverous birds, but is unable to account for the 

 cause of this. " I have a nightingale," says he, 

 " which will readily take food from the hand, and 

 which, like all other insectiverous birds, is most 

 voraciously fond of lepidopterous insects in general ; 

 but the Magpie Moth he constantly refuses, though 

 I have seen him swallow in succession three or four 

 of the Large Yellow Under- Wings, (Triphcena.) 

 I once even kept my insect-eating birds without 

 food beyond their usual time, when I threw into 

 their cage a variety of common moths, amongst 

 which were three or four of the Abraxas Grossu- 

 lariata ; but the latter were even then rejected, 

 though the other various species were devoured 

 greedily. One, however, was swallowed by a 



* Vol. i. p. 549. 



