THE COLORATION PROBLEM. 79 



Observer. — J. T. Curtis. Time. — 8 a.m. 



Date.— June 20th, 1915. Sex.— <? . 



Place.- — Poole. Duration. — Casual. 



Food. — " Whilst watering the front garden I saw a cock blackbird 

 catch a brown moth and eat it ; there was no mistake about it, the bird 

 was only four or five feet from me." [I might say that my father is 

 not an entomologist, and would therefore be unable to identify the moth 

 in any case. — W.P.C] 



18. Erithaca rubecula, L., race melophilus, Hartert. 



The British Redbreast. 



Observer. — W. P. Curtis. Time. — ? 



Date.— April 27th, 1913. Sex.—? 



Place. — Bere Wood, Dorset. Duration. — Casual. 

 Food. — Green larvfe. 



Observer. — E. H. Curtis. Time. — ? 



Date.— May 17th, 1913. Sex.— <? and ? . 



Place. — ^Bere Wood, Dorset. ■ Duration. — No record. 



Observer. — W. P. Curtis. Time. — ? 



A pair feeding young at the nest with brown and green larvae, but 

 mostly brown. No details kept. 



Date.— June 2oth, 1914. Sex.—? 



PLACE.-^Parkstone Lake, Poole. Duration. — Casual. 



Food. — Orgyia antiqua $ ; the attack was ineffectual owing to the 

 rapid manoeuvring of the insect. 



Observer. — W. P. Curtis. Time. — Early morning. 



Date.- June 18th, 1916. Sex.—? 



Place. — Arrowsmith, Canford, 



Dorset. Duration. — Casual. 



Food. — Cabera pusaria ; bird was taking insect into its nest. 



Observer- — E. H. Curtis. Time, — Afternoon. 



Date.— May 3rd, 1914. Sex. — $ and $. 



Place.— Canford, Dorset. Duration. — 2^ hours. 



Food. — Seventeen visits were made to a nest of young with worms 

 only. [Curiously enough I spent some time over this pair of birds 

 myself as they came to a particular place for the worms, and I thought 

 it was another pair feeding young where they were actually foraging. 

 Later on, with the assistance of my brother, I established that it was 

 the same pair that he was watching at the nest, and after some diffi- 

 culty we actually saw them digging the worms out of rotten leaf 

 mould.] 



[Note. —Owing to the absence of details on May 17th, 1913, these 

 results do not lend themselves to satisfactory tabulation, but fixing the 

 purely empirical number of eight visits for May 17th, this gives the 

 following :— 28 observations. Food identified every time. Lepi- 

 dopterous imagines twice, once only was the attack completed.] 



19. Luscinia megarhynoha, Brehm. The Nightingale. 



Observer. — W. P. Curtis. Time. — Morning and afternoon. 



Date.— May 25th, 1913. Sex.— $ . 



Place. — Bere Wood, Dorset. Duration. — 6 hours. 



