4 THE 1POOD OF BIBD8 Df INDIA. 



yet they have not been grown. Now a crop newly introduced into 

 a district is grown experimentally at first, on small areas ; should 

 these small areas be attacked by insects and newly introduced 

 crops often are so the people of that district will conclude such 

 crops are not worth taking up on a commercial scale, if most of them 

 are to be grown to feed insects. Insecticides and practically-applied 

 scientific measures can play an important part in checking insect- 

 attack. Such measures are all importat on experimental areas 

 and during sporadic insect-attacks ; but it is as well to bear in mind 

 that natural checks are quite as important, if not more so. Natur- 

 al checks are always there, always keeping the balance of life more 

 or less even, and it is these we have to thank for limiting injury 

 to crops and orchards to a very large extent ; they act as a conti- 

 nual check on injurious insects and insects which are generally re- 

 garded as harmless, but which may at any time change their habits 

 somewhat to the injury of crops. These checks consist of parasitic 

 and predaceous insects, animals, frogs, reptiles and above all birds. 

 As man upsets the balance of nature by extending cultivated 

 areas and by a more or less artificial production of crops, he lays 

 himself open to attack from all sides, and must make as much use 

 as he can of the help given him by nature against these attacks. 

 (See Indian Insect Pests, Chapter V.) 



From the most casual field observations, much can be learnt 

 in a general way about the food of certain birds during some parts 

 of the year. We can see Mynahs catching moths, crickets, &c., and 

 eating maize, the Hoopoe probing the ground for caterpillars, the 

 Rose Ringed Paraquet pulling wheat and mustard to pieces and 

 taking more than his share of lichis ; and many other similar rotes 

 can be made about these and other species of birds. It is therefore 

 quite an easy matter to state that the food of such and such a bird 

 consists of, say berries, beetles and grubs, and it is interesting to 

 know such is the case. Such sweeping statements are, however, 

 valueless to any one in a practical way except as showing vaguely 

 what class of food a bird may be expected to take at certain seasons, 

 and merely show how little is known about that bird's food. Scienti- 



