660 F. Finn — Experiments with various Birds. [No. 4, 



I then put in a Junonia, which was attacked and swallowed; 

 then another P. demoleus, which the bird at once attacked, but left to 

 eat the " Blue" with less readiness than I should have expected. It 

 soon attacked the P. demoleus again, and the insect disappeared, all but 

 parts of wings, whereupon I put in another. 



I now had the cage cleaned, taking out this P. demoleus and 

 P. aristolochise, and also the two Euplceas, which had remained, all this 

 time, and which I now threw away. 



Later, after the bird had had no food for two hours or so, I put in 

 again these two Papilios, together with two Junonias of different 

 species ; these latter almost immediately disappeared, all but some 

 pieces of wing, and I then saw the bird batter the P. demoleus and eat 

 the body. P. aristolochise left. 



December 18th. — The P. aristolochise was still uneaten to-day; the 

 bird had food by it. 



I put in the Shama's cage another P. aristolochise, and one 

 specimen each of Papilio demoleus, Danais genutia and D. limniace. 

 The bird attacked, first D. genutia, P. demoleus, and D. limniace, 

 then D. genutia again, then D. limniace again, then it attacked D. genutia 

 a third time, and then attacked P. deuoleus, pecked off the wings, and 

 ate the body. I noticed that with the Danaids it attacked the end of 

 the abdomen — not so with the P. demoleus. It then pecked the D. lim- 

 niace, and then apparently (for the insect seemed to have been moved) 

 for the first time the P. aristolochise. 



Some time after (maggots having been given in the meantime) I 

 found the D. limniace pecked to pieces, but not eaten, except probably 

 the head, which was missing. The D. genutia was missing, but next day 

 I found it behind the water-tin. The P. aristolochise was still there ; its 

 wings had been pecked. There were green insects as well as maggots in 

 the cage. 



Two hours or so after this, the Shama, though there were still green 

 insects in its cage, had apparently eaten both the D. limniace and P. aris- 

 tolochise. 



This ended the experiments with this species, as on the next day 

 I released the bird, which disappeared. 



I also made a considerable number of experiments at this time with 

 a Starling, the Indian Sturnus menzbieri probably, a bird practically iden- 

 tical with the common European species. Starlings are omnivorous and 

 feed largely on the ground, like Thrushes, and so are probably less 

 important as enemies to butterflies than some other birds. They do 

 not use their feet in feeding, but this species at any rate can dispose of 

 a large prey easily enough by swallowing it whole. 



