MASON AND LEFROY. 11 



Frogs, Lizards. Birds which eat toads, frogs, lizards (and 

 snakes ?) are undoubtedly injurious in this respect, hawks and owls 

 especially. The amount of insects a frog can eat is enormous, 

 the variety of insects he takes is astonishing : he is practically an 

 exclusive insect feeder, limited only by stomach capacity. A 

 frog knows to a nicety how large an insect he can get outside of. 

 Frogs and toads are recognised as one of the best methods for keep- 

 ing greenhouses and gardens free from insects. They seem parti- 

 cularly partial to grasshoppers and ephemerids, but moths, ants 

 and beetles of every description do not come amiss. They have 

 been seen also to take small millipedes. Toads are said to take bees 

 from the hive, but this can easily be prevented by practical measures 

 adopted by the bee-keeper. Lizards are a little more fastidious, 

 they prefer moths and flies to anything else. They undoubtedly 

 take beneficial insects as well, but in spite of this they mu^t at pre- 

 sent be considered beneficial. Any one who watches the common 

 house lizards of India cannot help noticing that beetles, and other 

 hard insects, are carefully left alone, and that they seldom touch 

 ants. The common small hemiptera or stink-bugs (Cydnus), so 

 common round our lamps in the rains, are also carefully left alone. 

 I saw a young lizard take one once. He did not seem to like it 

 and retired behind a book on my writing table most probably to 

 get rid of it. He has not taken one again, though not for want of 

 opportunity. 



Spiders, Fish, Molluscs, Crustacea, &c. Some birds take spiders, 

 but to no great extent, not enough to be regarded as injurious from 

 that cause alone, though a habitual spider-eater is injurious. Fish 

 and mollusc-eating birds are of no importance generally in India ; 

 when they are injurious which would be very locally, they can be 

 destroyed. Mollusc and snail feeders are at any rate, if not in India, 

 beneficial in other countries, especially with regard to the checking 

 of liver fluke in sheep. 



Birds. Birds which prey on other birds do a considerable 

 amount of good and at the same time harm. No doubt many birds 

 of no economic value are taken, and also even if the birds taken 



