THE INDIAN WHITE-EYE I39 



the fruit itself. He further declares that he has 

 known caged individuals in England feed with avidity 

 on dried figs. Hutton also states that white-eyes 

 feed greedily upon the small black berries of a species 

 of Rhamnus, common in the Himalayas. Notwith- 

 standing the authorities cited, it is my beUef that these 

 little birds are almost exclusively insectivorous. They 

 perform a useful work in devouring numbers of ob- 

 noxious insects, which they extract from flowers. In 

 so doing their heads sometimes become powdered 

 with pollen, so that the white-eyes probably, like bees 

 and moths, render service to plants by carrying pollen 

 from one flower to another. 



The search for food does not occupy the whole day. 

 Except at the nesting season, the work of birds is hght. 

 In the early morning the white-eyes feed industriously ; 

 so that by noon they have satisfied their hunger. They 

 then flit and hop and fly about purely for pleasure. 

 White-eyes, hke all small birds, literally bubble over 

 with energy. They are as restless as children. Once 

 when walking through the Lawrence Gardens at 

 Lahore in the days when they had not yet fallen into 

 the clutches of that enemy of beautiful scenery, the 

 landscape gardener, I came across a company of these 

 charming httle birds disporting themselves amid some 

 low bushes near a plantation of loquat trees. First 

 one little bird, then another, then a third, a fourth, a 

 fifth, etc., dropped to the ground, only to return at once 

 to the bush whence they came. A whole flock ap- 

 peared to be taking part in this pastime. There were 

 two continuous streams, one of descending and the 



