MASON AND LEFROY. 361 



survive as the result of your dish of Ortolans. Personally I would 

 put a high penalty on the destruction of Ortolans. 



The Wood-peckers are beneficial partly by feeding on insects 

 attacking trees, partly by destroying the many insects which 

 hibernate or rest in the cracks of the bark (e.g., Myllocerus 

 discolor}. 



The common Indian Green Barbet is distinctly injurious to 

 fruit especially and requires to be kept down. The Crimson-breasted 

 Barbet appears to be neutral, eating the fruits of wild figs, but 

 these have some economic value as food, and the Barbets as a whole 

 seem to have no good points. The Indian Roller or Blue-jay on 

 the other hand is a most beneficial bird and one of the commonest 

 in the plains. It is one that likes a perch from which to float down 

 on to its prey, and could be encouraged. Above all its destruction 

 should be met with the heaviest penalties, as its bright plumage ex- 

 poses it to attack. 



The common Indian Bee-eater is a beneficial bird, except in 

 regard to bees. Our attempts to make bee-keeping in bar-frame hives 

 a success have been largely frustrated by these birds. In general 

 the bird is beneficial, but to those attempting bee-keeping the bird 

 is an enemy. The Blue-tailed Bee-eater is directly injurious from 

 the agricultural point of view and does not deserve protection. 

 The Hoopoe is deserving of protection in its strongest form and only 

 a confirmed bird-maniac would shoot a Hoopoe. The Night Jars and 

 the Cuckoos we rank as beneficial, while the Koel is neutral. The 

 Crow-Pheasant is very doubtful, it does good and does harm, and 

 probably does not stand in need of protection. 



The Parroquets are deserving of no protection at all but of utter 

 extermination, and all the nonsense written about their "extermina- 

 tion " by ignorant people in England is based on an entire ignorance 

 of India. There is no more destructive bird to the crops than the 

 parroquet and the cultivater is powerless against it. 



The Owls are beneficial, the Barn Owl eating mice, the Spotted 

 Owlet eating insects, including Chrotojonus, the destructive surface 



