MIMIC BY. 353 



before the birds succeeded in getting the bodies of the butterflies, 

 although these were sitting quietly on the ground."* Mr. Riley 

 Fortune states that he has often seen Starlings chasing butter- 

 flies.! The Stonechat greedily devours butterflies, as I have 

 seen in the aviaries of Dr. Butler. Zehntner on different 

 occasions found seven Painted Lady butterflies in the mouths of 

 Alpine Swifts (Cypselus melba), as recorded in the ' Catalogue 

 des Oiseaux de la Suisse.' I Such an observation did not miss 

 the lynx eyes of Jefferies : " I once saw a Flycatcher rush after 

 a buff-coloured moth, which fluttered aimlessly out of a shady 

 recess ; he snapped it, held it a second or two while hovering in 

 the air, and then let it go. Instantly a Swallow swooped down, 

 caught the moth, and bore it thirty or forty feet high, then 

 dropped it, when, as the moth came slowly down, another Swallow 

 seized it and carried it some yards and then left hold, and the 

 poor creature after all went free. I have seen other instances of 

 Swallows catching good-sized moths to let them go again." § 

 These moths were probably inedible species, and were thus pro- 

 tected, at least at this stage of their existence. Mr. Furneaux, 

 referring to the common and well-known white butterflies of the 

 British Pieridce, observes : " It is remarkable that we are so 

 plagued with ' whites ' seeing that they have so many enemies. 

 Many of the insect-feeding birds commit fearful havoc among 

 their larvae, and often chase the perfect insect on the wing."|| 

 Another writer states: "At no stage in their lives are lepi- 

 dopterous insects free from the attacks of enemies. In the egg 

 state they fall a prey to beetles and small birds, and as larvae 

 they are extremely liable to receive a deadly thrust with the 

 ovipositor (or sting) of an ichneumon. . . . The enemies of 

 the imago, whether butterflies or moths, are numerous. Birds, 

 Bats, dragonflies, &c, pursue and harass them whenever they 

 happen to meet with them."^[ Fungi are also parasitic on 

 butterflies.** But the discrepancy in experience as found among 



* 'Organic Evolution,' Eng. Transl., p. 118. 



f ' Ornithology in relation to Agriculture and Horticulture ' (1893), p. 139. 

 I Cf. Gurney, 'Trans. Norf. and Norw. Nat. Soc.,' vol. vi. p. 259. 

 § ' Wild Life in a Southern Country,' p. 147. 

 || 'Butterflies and Moths' (British), p. 144. 

 1J F. 0. Pickard-Carnbridge, 'Roy. Nat. Hist.,' vol. vi. p. 80. 

 ** J. C. Rickard, ' Entomologist,' vol. xxix. p. 170. 

 Zool. Mh ser. vol. III., August t 1899. 2 a 



