04 THE POOD OP BIRDS IN INDIA. 



Vegetable matter forms a considerable portion of the diet, 

 and this consists very largely of wild fruits. 23 birds took vegetable 

 matter and of these 10 took Ficus fruit, 2 " ber/' and 2 took 

 paddy grains. 



The " Seven Sisters," so called from their habit of going about 

 in parties of six or seven ; I, however, have seen as many as 23 in a 

 flock. Their food is, I believe, obtained entirely on the ground, and 

 consists of a great variety of insects and weed seeds, with an 

 occasional frog, spider, or centipede. The food is obtained in 

 jungle, along roads and in compounds ; cultivated areas and crops 

 hardly ever seem to be visited, and this only when there are large 

 trees or jungle close by. The insect food is obtained by turning 

 over leaves and rubbish. Fruits, namely, bei (Zizyphus jujuba) 

 and Ficus of several species are eaten to some extent, but I believe are 

 always picked up off the ground. I have been told that at times 

 this bird feeds extensively on fruit buds, and does some consider- 

 able damage, but have at present not been able to verify this. I 

 have not examined any nestlings of this species, but from 

 observations made in the field they appear to be fed principally on 

 caterpillars. I have on several occasions seen geometrid larvae 

 fed to the young with a certain proportion of beetles, and 

 an occasional cricket or small grasshopper. 



Conclusion: Probably beneficial. 



111. Crateropus griseus. White-headed Babbler. They are 

 occasionally seen seeking insects or grain from heaps of dung. . . .now 

 and then one will make a clumsy flight after a grasshopper. They 

 often appear to pick insects off the branches. Jerd. B. I., II, 60. 



I saw worms ? and Tenebrionid beetles, and one grasshopper 

 taken by this bird in Madras and Palur. 



120. Pomatorhinus horsfieldii. Southern Scimitar Babbler. 

 Entirely on insects. Jerd. B. I., II, 31. 



Insects which it picks off leaves, ground or trunks of trees. 

 It uses its long bill as a probe by means of which it drags out insects 

 which lurk in crevices of the bark of trees. B, N. H. S. J., XVI, 153, 



