MASON AND LEFROY. 107 



Summary. Of 106 insects taken by 8 birds, 4 are beneficial, 

 67 injurious, and 35 neutral. One bird took beneficial insects, 8 

 injurious, 4 neutral. 



This bird appears only to hunt in flocks, much more so than 

 is the habit with the Common Mynah (A. tristis}. During the last 

 two years I have only seen it atPusa on one or two occasions ; on the 

 first it was feeding among cattle on various insects, among which 

 from the stomach then obtained it appears it was largely feeding 

 on flies. The second occasion it appeared in fairly large numbers 

 during a very bad attack of the common castor pest, Ophiusa meli 

 cer'e. The seven birds then obtained showed that it was feeding 

 almost entirely on this caterpillar, the greatest number in one 

 stomach being 14. The flock of birds in the 2 acres of castor 

 numbered at least two hundred, and estimating the number of 

 caterpillars eaten per bird per day as 50 a very low estimate - we 

 see that these birds destroyed at least 10,000 caterpillars in one day. 

 This bird appears to be locally known as the '* Tilliar," and 

 therefore in any local reports it is as well to note that in parts of 

 Behar at any rate this name does not apply to the Rosy Pastor. 



Information with regard to this bird's food is at present very 

 limited, but from what is on record it would appear that this Mynah 

 is the most beneficial of the whole group. It is possible, however, 

 that damage reported to crops, such as that I have already mention- 

 ed under A. tristis (damage to sorghum at Pusa in 1906), maybe due 

 to this species. 



This sudden appearance at Pusa, where the bird is but seldom 

 observed, is an excellent instance of local migration for food, and it 

 would be interesting to know by what means the bird detected the 

 presence of the caterpillars. It may also be interesting to note 

 that in the attack abovementioned A. tristis was only present in 

 very small numbsrs, and certainly destroyed very few caterpillars 

 in comparison with A. ginginianus. These birds disappeared as 

 soon as there were no more caterpillars to feed on, a few remaining 

 in the fields accompanying cattle, which is the commonest method 



