WL THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



here named Vanessa levana (the Least Tortoiseshell). I have made 

 careful enquiries around the district where I got this specimen 

 (Forest of Dean) but cannot trace anyone breeding foreign butterflies, 

 so apparently it is the first British caught specimen. — T. Butt Ekins ; 

 Loxbere House, Windsor Terrace, Penarth, September 22nd, 1913. 



Birds eating Butterflies. — During the last two years I have 

 noticed only two instances of birds catching butterflies, though I 

 have kept a sharp look-out for them. In my small garden, of perhaps 

 three-quarters of an acre, I have notes on no fewer than thirty-five 

 species of birds, either in the garden or flying over, such as swifts 

 and swallows. No doubt this large number is due to the fact that 

 my grounds are the most sheltered on the Curragh ridge, and give 

 the birds some protection from the violent winds which blow from 

 the south-west for the greater part of the year. Eight species 

 have nested in the garden, and tasting experiments should, one 

 would think, be fairly in evidence, but I have witnessed none. 

 Of the two instances I am able to give, one was a chaffinch and 

 the other a young robin, both the victims were " whites," P. brassies 

 and P. rapes respectively. The chaffinch was driven off, but returned 

 and finished its meal. It is noteworthy that on both occasions it 

 was raining heavily, and both butterflies had been disturbed and 

 were unable to do more than flutter, owing to the downpour. This 

 supports the view held by myself and others that attacks on butter- 

 flies are comparatively rare, owing to their being more difficult to 

 capture than other prey. No doubt there are other reasons, one 

 being, as Colonel Yerbury has expressed it, a maximum of wings and 

 a minimum of body. The birds that have nested in the garden 

 comprise the following: Mistle Thrush, Long Thrush, Blackbird, 

 Chaffinch, Eobin, Gold Crested Wren, Hedge Accentor, Sparrow. — 

 N. Manders (Lt.-Col.) ; Curragh Camp. 



The Butterflies of the Curragh District. — The butterflies 

 of the Curragh district are necessarily few in number, but though I 

 was prepared for a paucity of species I was surprised to find that 

 the exertions of two seasons' collecting only produced nineteen, and 

 of these two, G. rhammi and A. paphia, are represented by single 

 specimens. Butterflies in Ireland are near the western limit of their 

 distribution ; but the chief impediment to their greater numbers, 

 both in species and individuals, is, doubtless, to be found in adverse 

 climatic conditions. Ireland is notoriously a wet district, but so far 

 as my experience goes, and it is almost confined to the Curragh, it 

 is not so much the rainfall as the extraordinary number of dull, 

 cloudy days, often without rain, which follow each other with the 

 most distressing regularity. While England was enjoying uninter- 

 rupted sunshine in June and July, Ireland, or at any rate this part 

 of it, was lying under a dense atmosphere of persistent cloud, which 

 lasted week after week with, consequently, an almost total absence 

 of butterfly and other insect life, and it was not until July was well 

 advanced and in August that we had real summer weather. Last 

 year was a contrast to this ; then we had a fine spring and no 

 summer ; this year w T e have had a very wet spring and a late warm 

 summer, and the effect on the emergence of the spring butterflies 



