BIRDS AND tNSECTS 



white eyeSj orioles, weavers, wagtails, sun birds, tits, 

 shrikes, bulbuls, and fly-catchers. 



The aphides, otherwise known as plant lice or green 

 fly, do extensive damage to both cultivated and wild 

 plants. 



In England the damage done to the hop fields in 

 a single season amounted to £1,750,000, with an addi- 

 tional expenditure of £200,000 to overcome the plague. 

 In South Africa the damage by insects is great, 

 and goes on from year to year, varying with the number 

 of bird enemies there happens to be in the locality. 

 With but very few exceptions the smaller birds prey 

 upon these rapidly breeding plant lice. Even the little 

 seed-eating birds, such as wax-bills, sparrows, finches, 

 and weavers, eat vast numbers. 



Scale insects infest trees and plants to an alarming 

 degree. Their chief bird enemies are the woodpeckers, 

 tree-creepers, tits, and white eyes. 



Caterpillars are the larvae of butterflies and moths. 

 Of the many hundreds of species of birds in South 

 Africa, there are not more than fifty species which do 

 not feed more or less on them when the opportunity 

 presents itself. With but very few exceptions the 

 smaller birds feed their young on soft-bodied insects. 

 I have found by actual examination that 90 per cent, 

 of the contents of the nestlings' stomachs consists of 

 small caterpillars. 



Moths, gnats, and multitudes of other kinds of 

 flying insects are eaten by swifts, swallows, martins, 

 fly-catchers, night jars, wagtails, warblers, and an 

 army of other species of birds in a minor degree. 



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