244 GLIMPSES OF INDIAN BIRDS 



by birds on insects ; that is to say, on an average 

 about two attacks in three days I 



Watch a bee-eater feeding and you will see it take 

 twenty or thirty insects in less than an hour. If you 

 were to watch it one whole day you might see it 

 capture 300 insects, but certainly not more than one 

 of its victims, on an average, would be a butterfly. 

 Yet, the theory of mimicry is based upon the assump- 

 tion that butterflies are so greatly preyed upon lyjr 

 birds that they require special means of protection I 



I ask all who are interested in the subject to be ever 

 on the look-out for birds chasing butterflies or moths. 

 These are so large and so easy to identify that there 

 can be no chance of mistaking them. Even a casual 

 observer, when watching a bird, cannot fail to notice 

 the capture of a butterfly by it. And when a bird has 

 captured a butterfly it cannot dispose of it very quickly. 

 According to Mr. Swynnerton, " some (birds) swallow 

 the insect (butterfly or moth) whole, but usually after 

 masticating or beating it ; some remove inconvenient 

 portions by ' worrying ' hke a dog or beating against 

 perch or ground; some grasp the prey in one foot and 

 tear off the rejected portions with the bill, eating the 

 rest piecemeal." 



The fact that the average bird has to go through 

 all the above performances before devouring a creature 

 containing so little nourishment as a butterfly, is 

 sufficient to show that it does not pay birds to chase 

 butterflies. 



But it is best not to rely on arguments to refute 

 the theories of persons who have no logic in them. 



