174 THE TOOT) OT BIRDS IN INDIA. 



caterpillars, it is said, to throw up in the air and catch in its beak 

 as they fall ; but I have never seen this, though I have watched 

 them feeding for hours at a time, and that on worms, as well as 

 other food. 



The insect food is obtained mostly on or from under the ground, 

 rarely on trees, or in the air. I have on several occasions seen a 

 hoopoe fluttering on to a rough tree stem to capture ants, and on 

 two or three occasions to take winged termites on the wing. 

 The main portion of its food is obtained either by probing 

 grassland for surface caterpillars and beetle grubs, or by turning 

 over leaves and rubbish for insects. It rarely picks them off 

 plants. 



I have seen it eating the following insects, Anomala viridis, 

 Anomala varians, and its larvae, Gryllotalpa africana, Termites, 

 Surface caterpillars of several species Agrotis ypsilon, A. spini- 

 fera, &c., Opatrum spp. and some crickets, grasshoppers, Chroto- 

 gonus sp., Tryxalis, <#c., and also ants. It certainly prefers large 

 insects to small ones. It eats worms and small snails occasionally, 

 and one stomach I examined contained some grass blades, though 

 these were probably taken in along with insects by mistake. It 

 is often robbed of its prey by the King crow and occasionally by 

 the House crow (Corvus spkndens.) 



Young birds are fed almost entirely on caterpillars (probably 

 all cutworms), grubs of Melolonthids, and crickets. The amount 

 of insects fed during the day to a nest of half -grown young is extra- 

 ordinary. A nest was watched one day from 6 A.M. to 7-30. In 

 the first hour 58 visits were made by the old birds to the nest. In 

 these visits 45 insects were almost certainly cutworms, 10 were 

 other caterpillars and grubs (some were whitish with brown heads 

 almost certainly the larvae of Anomala varians) and three were 

 crickets (one of these may have been a large beetle), were fed to 

 the young, and during the second half hour, 27 larvae and grubs. 

 All this food was obtained from grass lawns, or under sissoo and 

 mango trees. Only one insect was brought at each visit, and all 

 these insects were large ones. 



