352 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



small bush, and, though I have searched carefully, have not been 

 able to find him ; the only way is to remain quite quiet till he 

 again begins his song." * 



The aquatic larvae known as the Small " Bloodworm" (Tubifex 

 rivulorum) is another instance of an animal whose colouration is 

 a lure to its destruction, and whose fecundity can alone enable it 

 to survive. The angler knows how readily a dish of Gudgeon 

 can be procured with this bait ; whilst other well-known ground 

 fishes, such as the Loach (Cobitis barbatula), and the Miller's- 

 thumb (Coitus gobio) also greedily attack it. These small worms 

 live in great numbers in the mud at the bottom of streams, and, 

 as Mr. Beddard has observed, as " the head-end is fixed in the 

 mud, while the tail waves about freely in the water, these worms 

 form exceedingly conspicuous red patches, which must attract 

 ground-feeding fish." t 



It is often urged that few observers have seen butterflies 

 attacked by birds, and that therefore their protective and warning 

 colours are little needed against these as foes. Similar remarks 

 have been made with reference to other animals. Thus Mr. 

 Andrew Lang writes : — " On the Dee, Salmon sometimes rise to 

 March Browns, and take the artificial March Brown tied rather 

 large on these occasions. I have never seen a Salmon take a 

 natural fly, any more than I have seen a phantasm of the dead " ; 

 yet he adds he " can believe on good evidence that Salmon do 

 take natural flies.'' J Undoubted trustworthy accounts do exist 

 also as to avian attacks on Lepidoptera, and the writer has wit- 

 nessed not a few, though the occurrence is somewhat uncommon. 

 Eimer once came across a large concourse of white and blue 

 butterflies on a high plateau of the Swabian Alp : " On my 

 approach a number of birds (Stonechats) flew from the spot, and 

 when I came up I found a number of maimed butterflies lying 

 fluttering on the ground ; pieces had been bitten from the wings 

 of most of them — indeed the wings were often torn to pieces 



* ' Life of Frank Buckland,' by G. C. Bompas, 2nd ed. pp. 56-7. 



f 'Animal Coloration,' 2nd edit. p. 6. — According to Prof. Miall, the 

 colour of the larva of Chironomus is due to a blood-red pigment, which is 

 identical with the haemoglobin of vertebrate animals, and "only such Chiro- 

 nomus larvae as live at the bottom and burrow in the mud possess the red 

 haemoglobin " (' Nat. Hist. Aquatic Insects,' p. 130). 



J 'Illustrated London News,' February 10th, 1894. 



