158 EGYPTIAN BIRDS 



decrease. Of the decrease there is no doubt, and 

 1 have been told that now the natives — the men 

 who till the soil and benefit by its products — 

 openly say that certain insect pests the much-valued 

 cotton suffers from nowadays is due, in their opinion, 

 to the reduced number of " little white birds " 

 who used to come in flocks, by hundreds, and search 

 and find and devour these same insect pests. 



