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general idea that the Coccinellidse are scarcely ever touched : 

 it may be considered as proved that they are very distasteful, 

 but at times they are certainly eaten by birds with relish, and 

 not through want of other food. Batrachians seem to object 

 to them. Professor Poulton tells me that he has seen a tree 

 frog go for a Coccinellid and then retire in disgust, and I 

 believe that many others have had much the same experience. 

 The beetles that appear to be almost universally rejected are 

 the Lampyrid^e and their allies, the Lyciclre, Telephorida?, etc. 

 The Telephoridse, as is well known, are among our most 

 abundant insects in summer, and the air is often full of them 

 on sunny days, and yet Mr. Newstead failed to discover the 

 remains of a single specimen in all the birds that he examined : 

 and Mr. Belt (" Naturalist in Nicaragua," p. 317) states that in 

 his experience the Lampyridai and their allies were universally 

 rejected by monkeys and fowls. As we might expect, they 

 are one of the most widely-mimicked groups of the Coleoptera. 

 The subject of the food of the North American birds has, 

 I believe, been largely taken up by the American Board of 

 Agriculture, but I have not been able to consult the records, 

 nor would there be time now to discuss them : with regard to 

 tropical birds comparatively few observations have been 

 published. Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace, however, informs me 

 that he is sure that many tropical birds eat beetles, especially 

 the larger Cuckoos, the Drongos (Edolius, etc.), and some of 

 the Hawks and Buzzards, in whose crops or stomachs he has 

 often found elytra or part of them. Experiments with birds 

 in captivity are not, perhaps, quite satisfactory, but Mr. 

 Donisthorpe has sent me a few valuable observations with 

 regard to Clythra quadripunctata, Gonioctena (Phytodecta) 

 rujipes, etc., and species of Lina, which were emphatically 

 rejected by several birds both British and foreign in the 

 Zoological Gardens. All the species, however, were eaten by 

 a Racket-tailed Drongo, which readily devoured even dead 

 specimens of Lina (Melasoma eenea.). Certain observations 

 have been made in the case of frogs, toads, and lizards, and it 

 seems plain that the Reptilia and Batrachians feed more or 

 less on beetles. I have myself found the remains of a large 

 Pterostichus (I believe it was P. madidus) in the stomach of a 



