XXXIII 

 INSECT HUNTERS 



FLY -CATCHERS, although they subsist al- 

 most entirely on insects, are by no means 

 the only insectivorous creatures in existence. 

 They merely form a considerable branch of 

 the Noble Society of Insect Hunters. 



If there exist any philosophers in the insect world 

 they must find the uncertainty of life a fitting theme 

 on which to lavish their philosophical rhetoric. Con- 

 sider for a moment the precariousness of the life of an 

 insect ! There exist in India probably over three 

 hundred species of birds which live almost exclusively 

 upon an insect diet. Think of the mortality among 

 insects caused by these birds alone, by the mynas, the 

 swifts, the bee-eaters, the king crows, et hoc genus omne. 

 Then there are insectivorous mammals, to say nothing 

 of man who yearly destroys millions of injurious and 

 parasitic hexapods. Fish too are very partial to 

 insects, while for spiders, frogs, and lizards, life without 

 insects would be impossible. Nor do the troubles of 

 insects end here, they are preyed upon by their own 

 kind, and, strange phenomenon, some plants entrap 

 and destroy them. But we Anglo-Indians cannot 



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