THH: FOOD OF BIRDS IN INDIA 



BY 



0. W. MASON, M.S.K.A.O., 



Lately Supernumerary Entomologist, Imperial Deparment of 

 Agriculture for India. 



EIUTRD BY 



H. MAXWELL LEB^ROY, M.A., F.K.S., F.Z.B., 

 Imperial Entomologist. 



INTRODUCTION. 



This paper is largely a compilation from various sources of 

 what little is known of the food of Indian birds at the present time. 

 It contains also numerous field notes on the food of the common 

 species of the plains together with the records of 1,325 stomachs 

 which have been examined in the laboratory. Many of the quota- 

 tions are practically reduplications of each other, and they have 

 been quoted in order to have all references from the works of va- 

 rious authors in one paper, and therefore in the form which anyone 

 interested in economic ornithology may find most useful. In most 

 cases, especially with the game birds and ducks, I have quoted in 

 full, paraphrasing only where a full quotation was unnecessary. 

 In the case of the birds I have myself been able to examine, the 

 references have frequently been compounded with my own field 

 notes, the reference being acknowledged. The literature at my 

 disposal has been somewhat limited and there may be records in 

 papers and works already existing which I have been unable to con- 

 sult. I have quoted from Evans (Cambridge Natural History, 

 Birds), as this work, though necessarily not containing much more 



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