MASON AND LEFEOY. 109 



Stomachs examined contd. 



F icus fruit. 

 21-6-08. 3 Camponotus compressu*. 



1 Small cricket. ' 

 Vegetable matter. 



22-6-08. 3 Ants (legs only). 



2 Opatrwm (depressum ?) 

 I Carabid. 



1 Small caterpillar. 



Ficus fruit. 

 27-11-08. Grass and weed leaves and seeds. 



Summary. Of 39 insects taken by 14 birds, 1 is beneficial, 25 

 injurious, and 13 neutral. One bird took a beneficial insect^ 6 

 neutral and 7 injurious insects. One bird took insects only, 12 bird's 

 took Ficus fruit which forms a greater percentage of this bird's food 

 than that of the Common Mynah, and 2 took other vegetable 

 matter. Six took vegetable matter only. 



The Pied Mynah has much the same feeding habits as the 

 Common Mynah. On the whole, however, it is decidedly more vege- 

 tarian. Some of this species may nearly always be seen in company 

 with A. tristis working grass and cultivated fields, and they are 

 seldom seen by themselves in flocks of more than 20 birds or so. 

 When any Ficus fruit is ripe or a cereal crop, such as maize, the birds 

 flock to these and at such times will be found to feed on little else. 

 They seem even more partial to Ficus fruit than the Common 

 Mynah. Some considerable damage is. done at times to the various 

 common cereal crops maize, sorghum and paddy especially. Its 

 insect food is much the same as that of the Common Mynah, consist- 

 ing as far as one can S3e in the field very largely of grasshoppers, 

 small moths, &c. I have not noticed it to take flying Termites. 



The Sturnidce. Starlings and Mynahs are perhaps the most 

 widely distributed and generally known of all our Indian birds, and 

 it is to this group in particular that special attention is required 

 in order to determine whether they are of sufficient economic in> 

 portance to require protection and encouragement. Information 

 with regard to the food of the commoner species is at present ab- 

 solutely inadequate fqr any definite statement to be made, and can 



