Junonia and Precis (Vanessids). And he goes on to say: "I also particularly noticed that the birds never went for a Danais or Euploea, or for Papilio macareus and P. xenocles, which are mimics of Danais, though two or three species of Danais, four or five of Euploea, and the two above-mentioned mimicking Papilios simply swarmed along the whole road[[62]]."
Marshall also quotes a case of attack by a green bee-eater on a Danais in which the butterfly was caught and subsequently rejected, after which it flew away. Little stress, however, can be laid upon this case in view of the more recent data brought together by Col. Manders and Mr Fryer. Discussing the attacks of birds on butterflies in Southern India and Ceylon, Col. Manders gives the following quotation[[63]] from a letter of Mr T. N. Hearsy, Indian Forest Service:
"Coimbatore, 6. 6. 10.... I have frequently seen the common green bee-eater (Merops viridis) and the king-crow (Buchanga atra) take butterflies on the wing, the butterflies being Catopsilia pyranthe, C. florella, Terias hecabe and Papilio demoleus. The bee-eater I have also seen taking Danais chrysippus and Danais septentrionis, and I remember to have been struck with their taste for those latter...."
Col. Manders also brings forward evidence for these Danaids and Euploeas being eaten by Drongos and by the paradise flycatcher. Still more recently an interesting contribution to the matter has been made by
Mr J. C. F. Fryer[[64]]. The Ashy Wood-swallow (Artamus fuscus) had been recorded on two occasions as having attacked Euploea core. Mr Fryer was fortunate in coming across this bird in the gardens at Peradeniya, near Kandy, at a time when Euploea core and Danais septentrionis were particularly abundant, and he watched a number of them systematically hawking these presumably unpalatable species. As he observes, "in Ceylon a resemblance to the genera Danais and Euploea is doubtfully of value; in fact in the neighbourhood of Wood-swallows it is a distinct danger." Fryer also noted that the mimetic forms of P. polytes were taken as well as the non-mimetic.
For tropical Central and South America, that other great region where mimetic forms are numerous, there are unfortunately hardly any records of butterflies attacked by birds. Bates stated that the Pierines were much persecuted by birds, and his statement is confirmed by Hahnel, but exact observations for this region are remarkably scanty. Belt observed a pair of birds bring butterflies and dragon-flies to their young, and noticed that they brought no Heliconii to the nest although these swarmed in the neighbourhood[[65]]. On the other hand, Mr W. Schaus[[66]], from an experience of many years spent in the forests of Central America, considers that the butterflies of this region are hardly, if ever, attacked by birds.
For North America Marshall records over 80 cases of birds attacking butterflies. Among them is an interesting record of a bird seizing and rejecting a specimen of Anosia plexippus (= Danais archippus), one of the few Danaines found in this region.
It must be admitted that the data at present available with regard to the attacks of birds upon butterflies under natural conditions are too meagre to allow of our coming to definite conclusions on the points at issue. It is safe to say that a number of species of birds have been known to attack butterflies—that a few out of the number feed upon butterflies systematically—that some of the most persistent bird enemies devour the presumably protected forms as freely as the unprotected—but that in a few instances there is some reason for supposing that the bird discriminates. Beyond this it is unsafe to go at present.
In attempting to come to a decision as to the part played by birds in the destruction of butterflies an evident desideratum is a knowledge of the contents of the stomachs of freshly killed birds. Unfortunately few systematic observations of this nature exist. G. L. Bates[[67]], when collecting in the Southern Cameroons, noted the stomach contents of a considerable number of birds. The remains of beetles were recognised in 213 cases: Orthoptera in 177: ants in 57 (mostly in stomachs of birds of the genus Dendromus): other Hymenoptera in 8: coccids in 32: bugs in 19: white ants in 31: slugs and snails in 24: spiders in 85