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. {113} 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 {114} (mostly in Sunbirds): millipedes in 20; but in no single instance were the remains of butterflies found. More recently Bates' account has been criticized by Swynnerton[68] who comments on the difficulty of identifying butterfly remains as compared with those of beetles and grasshoppers. He states that the pellets ejected by captive birds after a meal of butterflies contain only fine debris which is very difficult to identify. Further, he found that of twenty small bird excreta collected in the forest no less than eighteen contained scales and small wing fragments of Lepidoptera.