PREFACE. 



THE following pages contain a summary of the recorded facts of 

 the Food of Birds in India, and a statement of the food of the 

 individual birds shot or observed by Mr. Mason at Pusa in 1907, 

 1908, 1909. It has been necessary to edit the original manuscript 

 and I have added a short section (IV) in which I have tried to sum 

 up the practical results and to make the question clearer to the 

 reader who is not an Entomologist. My responsibility ends there, 

 and the student of birds will find Mr. Mason's observations in the 

 body of the work. The identification of the insects in the stomachs 

 was partly done by the staff in charge of the collections here and 

 Mr. C. H. Tipper kindly identified the Molluscs in the Indian Mu- 

 seum. I have revised the nomenclature of the insects throughout 

 and believe it to be correct ; the author is responsible for the ident- 

 ification of the birds. 



The identification of material in the stomachs is not easy and 

 has not been possible in the case of the seeds ; we will gladly do what 

 we can to assist other observers in this respect with insects if they 

 will send preserved stomachs, but we can only do so, as a rule, in the 

 caie of birds shot in the plains. 



H. M. L. 



M3667P8 



