MASON AND LEFROY. 187 



Common Hawk-Cuckoo or Brain fever bird (H. varius). This bird 

 is undoubtedly beneficial. Few if any beneficial insects are taken, 

 but the food consists almost entirely of injurious insects or those 

 allied to them ; amongst these we commonly find grasshoppers 

 (Chrotoqonm, Tryxalis, &c.), crickets ( Brachytrypes and Gryllotalpa) ; 

 Schizodzctylus ; lirvse of Lepidoptera both smooth and hairy ; beetles 

 especially the larvae of and imagines of Anomala, and imagines of 

 Elaterids and Rhynchophora, whilst Rhynchota, amongst which 

 occurs the Red Cotton bug, Dysdercus cingulatus, form a certain 

 proportion of their diet. Fruits of various kinds but especially of 

 th^ Piii are also freely eaten. 



Of oth^r genera of this sub-family all references point mainly 

 to the fact that the species eat caterpillars ; Coccystes jacobinus, 

 a very common species in Behar during the rains only, feeds largely 

 on Chrotogonus. Species other than those mentioned above are 

 practically confined to the hills, with the exception of Cacomantis 

 passerinus. 



Of the Phcenicophaince the Koel Eudynamis honorata is en- 

 tirely frugivorous and is only of economic importance in that it 

 has the habit of depositing its eggs in the nest of the common 

 species of Crows Corvus splendens and C. macrorhynchus and may 

 thus help to limit their numbers to some extent. Few cultivated 

 fruits are taken, its fruit diet consisting mostly of Fici. Phceni- 

 cophaes pyrrhocephalus is mostly a fruit eater, whilst the remaining 

 genera contain birds that appear to be mostly insectivorous, though 

 some take lizards, frogs, &c. Mantids appear to be the only bene- 

 ficial insects included in the diet, and spiders are occasionally 

 eaten. In this group are the Ground Cuckoos, birds that are not 

 parasitic and whose diet is far more varied than that of the Cuculince. 

 Centropus sinensis is the common plains species and may or not be 

 beneficial. It eats any living animal matter and varies this with vege- 

 table matter occasionally, sometimes it is said being a foul feeder. 



We can regard the Cuckoos as a class as beneficial, and it is 

 unfortunate that they are not more numerous (as far as tjieir 

 feeding propensities go). 



