728 Lt.-coL. n. mAndeRs 6n the 



apparently pi'eference for the last named. Some black-and-white 

 Flycatchers come close when I am beating for ' plumes ' on the 

 road here, and catch lots of common Pyralids I put up. The 

 common Magpie Robin comes most mornings for the moths which 

 I have slain at the lamp and discarded, and I have seen a Sparrow 

 catch a gold-tail moth. But since you asked me a year ago 

 to look out, I have not seen half a dozen cases of birds eating 

 butterflies." 



" Kalupahani, 26.6. 10. I have kept my eyes open for birds eating 

 butterflies but have no new notes. During the last flight the 

 Fork-tailed Drongos were as usual feeding on the white butterflies, 

 but that is the only instance I have seen. Certainly few, if any, 

 birds eat the Terias family. I have watched them flying slowly 

 with Swallows, Drongos, and Flycatchers close to them and leaving 

 them alone. I fancy Bee-eaters take butterflies, but they are 

 scarce hei-e, and I have no data therefore to go on 



" KalUma philarclixis appeal's at Hadumulle in large numbers 

 and the flight lasts for abovit a week. The biggest flights are 

 very nearly always from about Christmas to the New Year*, but a 

 smaller flight appears in July. About once in four years they are 

 especially common . . . They seem especially to favour Loquat trees, 

 but come readily to a mixture of jaggery (native sugar), beer and 

 rum. Instead of settling on the branches or trunk with their 

 heads towards the top, they seem usually to do the opposite, and 

 are therefore apparently very conspicuous ; but the bii'ds do not 

 seem to notice them till they move (when they come to sugar 

 they settle anyhow). 



" The spot where I mainly catch them is about two acres of 

 Grevilleas planted with a few Loquats. When the flight is on, 

 the Grevilleas seem full of Forked-tailed Drongos, and as soon as a 

 butterfly moves a Drongo darts for him, but usually only takes a 

 big piece out of one wing. I have never seen the wings lying on 

 the ground, so fancy if the Drongo gets him he eats wings and all. 

 I have never, however, seen him catch one." 



" 10.10.09. Paducka. Watched Drongos (i)tc?-«r?is leucopygialii) 

 hawking for flies ; though Mycalesis ceylonica and small Lycsenids 

 were flying plentifully beneath the birds, they did not take them. 



" 19.12.09. Paducka. Watched several Drongos and a Paradise 

 Flycatcher ; the former fi'equently caught small flies in the air and 

 occasionally came to the ground after bigger insects, but only once 

 did one catch a lepidopterous insect and this seemed to me a moth. 

 The Flycatcher took short flights on the ground picking up flies, 

 but certainly not a butterfly. Came across five fully fledged Ashy- 

 headed Babblers sitting all together on a branch ; they flew oflf only 

 when I appi'oached quite close to them, with great chattering, very 

 much like the ordinary Babblers ; the old birds were hunting for 

 food in the thick bamboo jungle. This is veiy late in the year 

 for young birds." 



I give these merely as samples of negative notes ; there is no 

 object in giving more. 



