22 THE FOOD OF BIRDS IN INDIA. 



ciadce] take mice, etc. Frogs have also been found to form some 

 part in the food of the common Babbler [Crateropodidae] ; the King- 

 crow [Dicruridse] eats worms and spiders, and so forth. 



From the " purely insectivorous " birds we must undoubtedly 

 transfer the Motacillidse to the group containing birds of mixed diet. 

 Wagtails have been found to take grain from near stables (whether 

 these grains were taken in mistake for other food has nothing to do 

 with the question here) and Pipits feed often very largely off weed 

 s-^ds and vegetable matter and are by no means qualified to be 

 called mainly insectivorous birds. If we are to place the Cuculidse 

 in any other group, and their food as a group is far too varied to be 

 called insectivorous, we must place them as omnivorous. This is 

 a far more satisfactory classification and more correct. 



In the present paper it will be noticed that birds are subdivided 

 into three headings only : 



Insectivorous. Birds that eat insects mainly, that is, insects 



form the greater part of their food. 



Mr. Sclater's purely insectivorous birds come under this 

 I heading. 



Graminivorous and Vegetarian. Birds whose diet consists 



mainly of vegetable matter or entirely so. 

 Mr. Sclater's frugivorous birds come under this heading. 

 Omnivorous. Birds that have a mixed diet, though they 

 may not be strictly omnivorous. Few birds are so. 

 Mr. Sclater's birds of mixed diet, birds which live in or about 

 water and wet places, carnivorous and omnivorous, are 

 all included in this group. 



' THE ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF BIRDS IN INDIA/ 

 " Birds may be economically considered in two very different 

 ways : firstly, from the direct point of view of the economic products 

 of the birds themselves ; secondly, from the indirect point of view 

 of the benefit derived from the destruction of noxious insects by 

 birds which, no doubt, is of very great importance to agriculture. 



