IV. THE VALUE OF BIRDS TO AGRICULTURE. 



In the above pages are given in very full detail the records 

 on the food of birds generally and the detailed contents of the 

 stomachs of bird shot at Pusa, in the middle o f a very intensely 

 cultivated agricultural tract where it might be supposed we could 

 form some idea of the value of the birds from the economic 

 standpoint. The final object of the enquiry was to elicit definite 

 facts on the beneficial or other influence of the birds as a whole 

 and of each common bird ; while the very large mass of recorded 

 information collected above is of value and was hitherto scat- 

 tered, it is of far less value than the actual recognition of the 

 exact species of insects eaten coupled with an estimate of the 

 position of each insect which has now only become possible as a 

 result of the entomological work at Pusa and with the resources 

 in identifying and placing insects which this section affords. 

 Jerdon's remark, for instance, on the food of Hierococcyx varius, the 

 Common Hawk Cuckoo, is " On Caterpillars, and other insects 

 and on fruits. It is very fond of the fig of the banyan and 

 other Fid." This, while valuable, is not so definite as the sum- 

 mary now made possible on the actual identification specimen by 

 specimen of 300 insects taken by 17 birds, where we find one insect 

 to be beneficial, 253 injurious and 46 neutral. In discussing the 

 birds, therefore, from their value in agriculture, I am limiting myself 

 to those of which there are actual stomach records since we must 

 inevitably come down to estimating the value of the bird by the 

 actual value we place upon each insect, a matter very much of per- 

 sonal opinion but which must be based upon an intimate knowledge 

 of the place, the insects' habits and the local agricultural practice. 

 A list of the birds of which there are stomach records is attached, 

 with its value (in my opinion) shown. 



