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MISCELLANEOUS FACTS. 
SOME MOTHS REJECTED BY BIRDS. 
Mr Brytu mentions, in the Field Naturalist’s 
Magazine,* a singular circumstance, which is quite 
new tous, namely, that the Magpie Moth (Abraxas 
Grossulariata) is rejected as food by various in- 
sectiverous birds, but is unable to account for the 
cause of this. “ I haye a nightingale,” says he, 
“which will readily take food from the hand, and 
which, like all other insectiverous birds, is most 
voraciously fond of lepidopterous insects in general ; 
but the Magpie Moth he constantly refuses, though 
I have seen him swallow in succession three or four 
of the Large Yellow Under-Wings, (Lripheena.) 
I once even kept my insect-eating birds without 
food beyond their usual time, when I threw into 
their cage a variety of common moths, amongst 
which were three or four of the Abraxas Grossu- 
lariata ; but the latter were even then rejected, 
though the other various species were devoured 
greedily. One, however, was swallowed by a 
* Vol. i. p. 549, 
