104 THE FOOD OF BIRDS IN INDIA. 



the fruits of the various common Indian Fici. This is apparently 

 the only class of fruit it habitually eats. It is said to do no harm to 

 orchard fruits, and only visits such places for insects which it can 

 pick up off the ground. I remember in one instance taking a straw- 

 berry out of the stomach of a Mynah. When any Ficus is ripe all 

 birds found in the locality, if examined, are almost certain to contain 

 some of this fruit. Of other vegetable materials which form part cf 

 the Mynah's food, the large succulent flowers of the Silk-cotton Tree 

 (Bombax malabaricum) are largely eaten in February and March, 

 grass and weed seeds and more rarely leaves are taken throughout 

 the year. In a few cases I have noted that white fleshy axils 

 had been eaten. Of cereals maize is the particular favourite 

 and some considerable damage is done to this crop from mid June 

 until the harvest is finished, some preference being undoubtedly 

 shown to the seeds while still soft and unripe. Eleven birds examined 

 during this period have contained nothing but this food together 

 with a little Ficus fruit. Wheat is occasionally taken, and bats to 

 an even less extent. Sorghum was said in December 1906 to have 

 been damaged considerably by Common Mynahs at Pusa, but I 

 fancy this was not due to A. tristis, but to A. ginginianus and S. 

 contra. 



With regard to its insect food the Mynah is not at all parti- 

 cular. Grasshoppers, crickets, and the larvae of both Coleoptera 

 and Lepidoptera are perhaps taken more than any other foims. 

 Grasshoppers are mostly taken when the birds accompany cattle 

 feeding on grass lands, the insects being disturbed by the cattle. 

 Crickets are usually taken in irrigated land when they are drowned 

 out, or flooded out, of their holes. Irrigated lands, too, afford 

 this bird a good hunting ground for worms, which are eagerly 

 sought for at all times, but notably during the rains. Mynahs eat a 

 considerable number of moths of all descriptions. I have seen 

 Plusia orichalcia and Ancylolomia chrysographella and various other 

 Noctuids and Pyralids taken on the wing. These birds are some- 

 times present during attacks of swarming caterpillars and with 

 Sturnopastor contra were said to have considerably checked these 



