34 THE FOOD OF BIRDS IN INDIA. 



Corvus splendens : contd. 



10-10-09. 5 Camponotua compressus. 



3 Opatrum sp. 

 1 Catharsius sabceus. 

 30 Maize grains. 



Some vegetable matter. 

 19-10-07. 25 Maize grains. 



Remains of perhaps 30 Rhynchophora, Astycus sp. and Myllocerus 



sp. ? ? 



20-10-08. 21 Oat grains germinated (these had been pulled up in the field. 

 Each grain well-rooted) and a considerable number of corn 



blades. 



20-10-08. 12 Wheat grains. 



20-10-08. Gizzard empty. A few young oat blades in alimentary canal. 



20-10-07. Grass leaves (or oats, wheat, &c.) and roots. 



Some Ficus fruit. 

 1 Small frog. 

 3 Oat grains germinated. 

 11-11-07. 2 Millipedes. 



1 Frog. 



20 Panicum sp. seeds and other weed seeds. 

 9-12-08. Remains of several young oat plants. 



19-12-07. 6 Cutworms (Agrotia sp.). 



1 Elaterid grub. 

 1 Carabid sp. 

 Several bits of root and weeds. 



Summary. Of 226 insects taken by 42 birds, 1 is beneficial, 

 153 injurious and 72 neutral. Ten birds took injurious insects, 8 

 neutral and one beneficial. One contained insects only. 



All except one bird contained vegetable matter ; oats were 

 taken by 13, wheat by 6, maize by 11, linseed by 1, peas by 1, Bom- 

 bax flower by 2, and Ficus fruit by 6. 



Four birds took frogs, 3 centipedes, 1 a lizard and 1 worms. 



The Indian House Crow is one of the commonest and most 

 familiar of Indian Birds, haunting especially the neighbourhood 

 of towns and villages. Crows are omnivorous and certainly nothing 

 seems to come amiss to the Indian House Crow. In towns these 

 birds, with kites and dogs, act as useful scavengers, taking all 

 manner of rubbish and offal, and may always be found round 

 kitchens cleaning up scraps and stealing everything they can. They 

 feed largely on carrion and any dead animal, jackal, dog, rat, &c., ' 'on 

 the corpse of some dead Hindoo or on that ol a dead bullock" 

 (Jerd. B. I., II, 299). They are proverbially mischievous and steal 



