112 THE ENEMIES OF BUTTERFLIES [ch. 



Mr J. C. F. Fryer^- The Ashy Wood-swallow {Artamus 

 fuscus) had been recorded on two occasions as having 

 attacked Euploea core. Mr Fryer was fortunate in 

 coming across this bird in the gardens at Peradeniya, 

 near Kandy, at a time when Euploea core and Darmis 

 septentrionis were particularlyabundant, and he watched 

 a number of them systematically hawking these pre- 

 sumably unpalatable species. As he observes, "in 

 Ceylon a resemblance to the genera Danais and Euploea 

 is doubtfuUy of value ; in fact in the neighbourhood of 

 Wood-swallows it is a distinct danger." Fryer also 

 noted that the mimetic forms of P. polytes were taken as 

 well as the non-mimetic. 



For tropical Central and South America, that other 

 great region where mimetic forms are numerous, there 

 are unfortunately hardly any records of butterflies 

 attacked by birds. Bates stated that the Pierines were 

 much persecuted by birds, and his statement is con- 

 firmed by Hahnel, but exact observations for this 

 region are remarkably scanty. Belt observed a pair 

 of birds bring butterflies and dragon-flies to their 

 young, and noticed that they brought no Heliconli to 

 the nest although these swarmed in the neighbourhood^. 

 On the other hand, Mr W. Schaus^, from an experience 

 of many years spent in the forests of Central America, 

 considers that the butterflies of this region are hardly, 

 if ever, attacked by birds. 



1 Proc. Zool. Soc. 1913. 



" A Naturalist in 'Nicaragua, 1874, p. 316. 



' /«■ Oongr. Intemut. d'Entomologie, Bruxelles, 1911. 



