8 



one gathers that the five examples referred to contained 

 between them no less than 213 surface-feeding caterpillars. 

 Apart from these we find also that a number of other birds 

 feed upon moth larvae. 



Caterpillars of the Winter Moth (Cheimatobia brumata) and 

 the Mottled Umber Moth (Hybernia defoliaria) — There are 

 altogether nine authentic instances of these insects being 

 eaten by birds. In the first record (No. 70) the stomach of the 

 Willow Wren was filled with the larvae of the first-named 

 insect, though the number of individuals was not counted. 

 The most important observation in reference to the destruc- 

 tion of these pests is that which is embodied in the Field Notes 

 on the Great Tit (No. 151) and the Starling (Nos. 399-403). 

 There is a record of at least one which was found in a young 

 Chaffinch and a striking record of over 120 larvae of the Winter 

 Moth in the stomach of a Jay (No. 322). 



Caterpillars of the Magpie Moth (Abraxas grossulariata) . — 

 These insects are undoubtedly distasteful to nearly all insect- 

 eating birds, but they were found in the stomachs of three adult 

 Cuckoos (Nos. 457-459). 



Moths and Moth Chrysalids. — The latter were rarely 

 found, and, in the instance of the young Starlings (No. 403) 

 many have been rejected. Moths appear to be eaten chiefly 

 by those birds which capture their food upon the wing such as 

 Swallows, Martins, Swifts and Nightjars, though there is one 

 record of the occurrence of the remains of these insects in the 

 stomach of a young Chaffinch (No. 259). 



Flies ,or Two-winged Insects (Diptera). 



This extensive order as a whole is not, apparently, preyed 

 upon by birds to the same marked extent that beetles are, 

 though we shall probably find as our researches are extended 

 that many birds which habitually take food upon the wing, 

 such as Swallows and Martins, feed extensively upon them. 

 The Crane Flies and their larvae, however, represent a consider- 

 able portion of the food of several kinds of birds. 



(( Leather Jackets" and Crane Flies (Tipulidae). — This 

 memoir includes no less than 46 individual records of the 

 occurrence of these insects in the stomachs and " castings " 

 of various birds ; and they were frequently represented by an 



