114 THE FOOD OF BIRDS IN INDIA. 



Summary. Of 16 insects taken, 3 are injurious, 13 neutral. 

 Rhipidura pick flies off cattle.- E. B. C. N. H., 508. 



604. Rhipidura albifrontata. White-browed Fantail Flycatcher. 

 Its chief food is mosquitoes and other small dipterous insects 

 also the small cicadellse (? Jassidse) that are so abundant on every 

 tree in India. Pursuing flies from the back of a cow. Jerd. B. I., 

 II, 453. Insects on cattle, eye flies, parasites. B. N. H. S. J., X, 

 302. 



605. Rhipidura albicollis. White-throated Fantail Flycatcher. 

 Small flies and mosquitoes. Jerd. B. I., 452. 



Flycatchers are not numerous in species on the plains, about 

 one in four of the recorded Indian species occurring, and some 

 of these but rarely. They are in all probability beneficial. They 

 are as a general rule insectivorous, though some species take fruits, 

 berries and seeds occasionally. 



Saxicolince and RuticillincB feed chiefly on the ground, and are 

 more insectivorous than thrushes. Redstarts and chats will take 

 insects on the wing. E. B. C. N. H, 517. 



SaxicolincB. Chats. Habits muscicapine : the insect food cap- 

 tured by sallies from a fixed perch. The Chats feed entirely on in- 

 sects, which they capture generally on the ground from a fixed perch, 

 such as the summit of stones, a stalk of grass, or a branch of a bush 

 and then return at once to their post of observation. F. I., II, 57. 



608. Pratincola caprata. Common Pied Bush-chat. I saw 

 this bird at Kasauli catching small grass moths (Pyralids 

 and Geometrids). 



629. Cercomela fusca. Brown Rock-chat. Feeds on the 

 ground on various coleopterous insects, ants, &c. Jerd. B. I., 

 II, 134. 



RuticillincB. Forktails, redstarts, blue-throats, nightingales, 

 robins, grandala, calene, and shamas. Habits terrestrial: the 



