726 LT. COL. N. M ANDERS ON THE 



imagine, has either the activity or voracity to make away with 

 such a great number of butterflies, even assuming that they settled 

 within its reach. A mantid is even less probable, and I much 

 doubt if there is one large enough to tackle Danainse or Hypo- 

 limnas in tlie Ootacamund region. 



" One would not be surprised to find an occasional Danais or 

 Euplma sampled by a bird, but to see evidence of a systematic 

 onslaught on butterflies which are so universally looked upon as 

 leaders of the army of distasteful insects, and which are so widely 

 mimicked by numerous ' unprotected ' butterflies and moths, 

 tends to make one sceptical of the accepted theories founded on 

 the alleged value of this distastef ulness. It is true that they may 

 disagree with other birds, lizards, &c., but if one enemy alone can 

 effect such wholesale destruction upon them, their immunity from 

 death by violence is so seriously impaired that it seems to me that 

 their numerous imitators amongst the ' Swallowtails,' ifec, are 

 simply asking for trouble. 



" There was no lack of other food for the Drongos, and it can 

 only be assumed that they found the Danainse very much to 

 their taste. One can hardly think of a morsel more apparently 

 unpalatable than TelcMnia violce, yet I saw a Bulbul feed its 

 young with one within a few feet of me. It would be interesting 

 if entomologists would give any evidence in the matter which 

 they can. I have seen the wings of Hyjjolimnas misippits some- 

 times scattered on the road near trees in considerable numbers, 

 and on two occasions I have seen the wings of Charaxes imna ; 

 this I imagine was not caught on the wing ; if so, I must con- 

 gratulate the bird on its power of flight. 



H. Leslie Andrewes." 



Barwood Estate, NilgU-is, 20th October, 1910. 



(Journal Bomb. Nat. Hist. Soc, vol. xx. p. 850.) 



This interesting observation may be held to support Mr. 

 Moulton's proposition (Trans. Eiit. Soc. Lond. 1908) that the 

 Euplceas of S. India are a Miillerian combination formed for 

 mutual protection against the onslaught of insectivorous birds ; 

 but evidence is required that at one time they differed materially 

 from their pi'esent day appearance. 



I took the few notes following at Coonoor, 6000 feet, Nilgiris, 

 S. India, in April 1910. I asked my collector, a half-caste who 

 had spent all his life in the jungles, whether he had ever seen a 

 bird catch a butterfly, and he immediately said he had, describing 

 the Paradise Flycatcher veiy accurately. He said they eat the 

 brown butterflies {E. core and coreta) and white ones. While he 

 was speaking I happened to open an envelope containing Danais 

 septentrionis, and he exclaioied, " I have seen them eat those too." 

 He added the bird nips off the wings and swallows the body ; 

 also that they catch and eat the Ornithoptera. A few days after- 

 wards I was at KuUar at the foot of the hills, about thirty miles 

 from Ootacamund, where these birds and Drongos are common. 

 I saw a Drongo in a lane, and close together on the ground 



