230 SOME SOUTH INDIAN INSECTS, ETC. CHAP. XXIII. 



< )n the other hand the Bee-eaters are exclusively insectivorous ; 

 yet they are destructive, especially where bees arc kept, by I 

 on these insects, and are especially noxious when queen-bi 

 being reared as they are almost invariably snapped up bj these 

 birds "ii their marriage-flight. The commonest species of bee-eater 

 i- Merops viridis, a small green bird with a long tail and slender 

 Weak, which is often seen perched on telegraph-wires, whence it 

 swoops down on insects and then returns to its perch. These birds 



: to be migrants to somi extent, though little seems to 

 record regarding their movements. Besides honej -bees, these birds 

 catch and cat various other species oi bees, w asps and dragon-tlies. 

 and the bulk of their food is composed of beneficial insects, so that 

 bee-eaters must certainly be tanked as injurious birds so far as 

 agriculture is concerned. 



The House-Sparrow, which has been well named the "Avian 

 rat," is essentially a human parasite and seems unable to establish 

 itself except in towns or at least in the neighbourhood of large 

 pucca buildings, where its incessant shrill cheeping makes it an 

 intolerable nuisance all through the day. The young nestlings are 

 fed at liisi on insects, chiefly caterpillars, but by the time tl 

 three weeks old their food is composed exclusively of grain, and 

 the adults bed almost whollj on grain, grass, and weed seeds and 

 incidentally probably do some damage by distributing weed- So 

 far as the farmer is i oncerned, the sparrow seems to be as injurious 

 in India as in most other countries, and would undoubtedly do more 

 damage if not cheeked outside oi townsbv hawks, kites, crows 

 and other enemies. 



Allied to the birds aie the Reptiles and Amphibians, the former 

 class including tortoises, lizards and snakes, tin lattei frogs .wu\ 

 toads. 



Lizards an- largely insi i tivorous and therefore beneficial on the 

 whole, though there is little exact information on record regarding 

 their food, and it is probable thai thi insects taken are oi more or 

 less neutral value on the whole. The common "bloodsucker" 

 m aloti s versicolor) sometimes catches butterflies but probably feeds 

 mostlj on ground-living beetles ol little importance, ["he geckos, 

 or wall-lizards, which so commonly take Up their station alongside 

 the bungalow-lamps in the evening, feed on almost any moving 

 insei t not too large to tackle, whether it be beneficial or not ; 1 ha\ e 

 seen a gecko catch and eat a large Mantis and conversel} I have 

 seen the same individual catch and reject unharmed an injurious 

 moth (Estigmene lactinea). Lizards undoubtedly do figun | 

 nently amongst the enemies of insect pests ol crops and to that 

 extent do some good, but they also do some harm b> feeding on 



