MASON AND LEPROY. 155 



on Ficus fruit, but other fruits are taken to some extent ; in some 

 localities coffee plantations suffer from ravages of these birds, and 

 in others orchard fruits are taken in considerable numbers. Insect 

 food is seldom taken and these birds have nothing to recommend 

 their protection. 



ANISODACTYLI. 



Coracias and Eurystomus. The food, largely procured when 

 hopping on the ground, consists of small reptiles, frogs, beetles, 

 worms, slugs, and grasshoppers, if not of grain.- -E. B. C. N. H., 

 377. 



1022. Coracias indica. Indian Roller or Blue Jay. The 

 Blue Jay is a good friend to the gardener, since it feeds exclusively 

 on insects and small animals. Jerdon cites as the chief articles 

 of its diet, large insects, grasshoppers, crickets, Mantidce, and 

 beetles with an occasional field mouse and shrew. To this he 

 might have added frogs and small snakes. D. B. P., 12. 



Jerdon also states (B. I., I, 214). ' When the winged ter- 

 mites issue from their nests after rain, the Roller like almost every 

 other bird, catches them on the wing." ' It is sometimes 

 trapped by bird lime, the bait being a mole cricket, or shrew (Mus 

 lepida) ; (Laggada lepida, Watt, R., 51). Often seen in gardens 

 and orchards, where it hawks insects, and sometimes feeds on 

 lizards and mice. Imp. Gaz., I, 248. 

 Stomachs examined. 



14-1-08. 4 Gryllotalpa africana. 



2 (Ecophylla smaragdina. 



2 Caterpillars ? 



12-2-07. 1 Gryllodes melanocephalus. 



27 Myrmecocystus setipes. 



3 Opatrwm sp. (depressum ?) 

 2 Tryx ind'icus. 



28-2-07. 5 Myrmecocystus setipes. 

 1 Trox indicus. 

 6 Caterpillars. 

 9-3-08. 3 Gryllotalpa africana. 



6 Myrmecocystus setipes (winged). 



