Abstract
OBSERVED instances of birds capturing butterflies are so few that I venture to think the following worth putting on record. On the evening of August 12, at about 6.30 p.m., I was walking beside a dyke on Ludham Marsh, Norfolk, when my attention was attracted by the alarm notes of a pair of sedge-warblers in the reeds. I stood still, and soon caught sight of both birds within about six yards of me. Each had a butterfly in its mouth, and with my field-glass I was able to identify the species as a meadow brown (E. Janira) and a small white (P. rapae). From the behaviour of the birds, and my observation of them on subsequent days, I have no doubt that they were feeding their nestlings, though I was unable to find the nest. I may add that at the time most of the butterflies had taken up their quarters for the night on stems of reeds, &c., and that very many of the butterflies which I observed during the daytime on the marshes had very ragged and chipped wings. These injuries may have been caused by wind and contact with twigs, thorns, &c., but they were quite compatible with repeated ineffectual pecks and snips from the beaks of small birds.
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