Abstract
PROF. POULTON has asked me to recall any observations of my own of the attacks of birds upon butterflies. Unless one makes a note at the time of occurrence it is seldom one can recall to mind any particular instance of the kind, although it is not so rare as it appears; but of the two following instances I have still a vivid recollection. The first occurred during the beginning of August 1892, near Wokingham, Berks.: I was chasing a Clouded Yellow (Colias edusa, Fabr.), the first seen of the autumn brood, so that I was all the more eager to capture it, when much to my chagrin a Spotted Flycatcher (Muscicapa grisola) darted from a fence and caught it. The other observation was made during the summer of 1897 and deals with one of our common moths, which I am aware are more frequently attacked than butterflies. Whilst proceeding along the Cowley Road, Oxford, I saw a House Sparrow (Passer domesticus), making frantic efforts to capture a noctuid moth which seemed to be a Turnip Moth (Agrotis segetum, Schiff.). The peculiar way in which the moth seemed to roll over and over in the dusty road and the eagerness of the sparrow, together with the loud chirping which it kept up all the time, caused quite a small knot of spectators to assemble to watch the apparently unequal contest, and when at last the moth baffled its pursuer and flew away there was an audible murmur of applause.
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HAMM, A. Birds attacking Butterflies and Moths. Nature 65, 366 (1902). https://doi.org/10.1038/065366b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/065366b0
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