368 THE POOD OF BIRDS Iff INDIA. 



The flies (Diptera) are of less importance directly and do not 

 figure much in stomach records except with such birds as swallows* 

 swifts, wagtails, fly catchers and bee-eaters. Probably Dragon- 

 flies feed immensely on small flies but among birds only the swallows 

 and their allies probably exert much influence on the numbers of 

 flies. With the Plant Bugs (Hemiptera Heteroptera) we have a 

 group of minor importance, and in which the acrid scent is probably 

 a protection, though some birds eat them. The Painted Bug (Bag- 

 rada picta) is for instance taken very little despite its abundance ', 

 our worst bug-pest, the -Rice Bug, is not recorded at all, though 

 very common ; the Red Cotton Bug (Dysdercus cingulatus) is taken 

 by four birds only, though at times immensely abundant, and though 

 inodorous. We may draw attention to the fact that the beneficial 

 predaceous bugs (Amyoteince, Reduviidce, etc.), do not seem to be 

 eaten by birds. 



In the Homopterous bugs, birds do little to check their increase 

 even with such abundant forms as Pyrilla aberrans : this may be 

 due to the difficulty of actually getting them off the leaves of the 

 cane plant. Aphids are eaten by some birds which seem to be spe- 

 cially adapted to feeding on small plants and eating them, but it is 

 doubtful how far they help to check them. Scale insects are little 

 recorded, except the Giant Mealy Bug (Monophlebus) , but probably 

 they are fed on to some extent. 



In this summary we have tried to picture generally the influ- 

 ence and value of birds, but this is difficult to present vividly to any 

 but persons to whom the names of the insects really represent de- 

 finite injurious insects, which cause large losses to agriculture. 

 The impression one gains by reading the detailed records and by cor- 

 relating it with one's knowledge of the insects is of a ceaseless war 

 waged by birds, not as a war but as the daily search for food, on edi- 

 ble insects which are mainly those destructive ones which have a 

 compensating very high ratio of increase and which are ceaselessly 

 breeding and increasing against the ravages caused in their nunobeis 

 by their enemies ; one can picture the caterpillars living under con- 

 stant menace (not known to them) of discovery by birds ; they are 



