PHOCEEDINGS OF THE THIRD ENTOMOLOGICAL MEETING 859 



seeds. This leaning of the process agains* the egg-shell is necessary, 

 firstly because the larva has no functional legs and therefore cannot get 

 a grip on the seeds to use the mandibles, secondly because the 

 larva is so short and thick-set that it has no neck to bend the head, 

 so that the bending of the head has to be effected by fixing the 

 H-shaped structure at various angles. When it is fixed forward the 

 mandibles work on the hind end of the hole. When fixed behind the 

 head is freer and the mandibles work on the front side of the hole. 

 For deeper excavations the process is fixed along the rim of the hole 

 at a point from which the head works on either side. The structure 

 appears to vary a good deal in different species of store— as well as free- 

 living forms and, before a study of the various forms is made and 

 correlated with the habits of the species concerned, the account of the 

 function of the structure in the genus cannot be said to be complete. 

 Attempts in this direction are being made in Mysore. 



52.— SOME INSECT PREY OF BIRDS IN THE CENTRAL PRO- 

 VINCES. 



By E. A. D'Ab«eu, F.Z.S., Curator of the Central Mvseum, Nagpur, 

 While making a representative collection of the avifauna of the Central 

 Provinces for the Nagpur Museum, I made it a point to record the con- 

 tents of the entire alimentary canal of almost every specimen secured. 

 Six hundred birds were thus examined and a list of the contents of their 

 stomachs has been published in No. II of the Records of the Nagpur 

 Museum. I now intend to give a list of the insects taken by the various 

 birds and also a list of the birds examined which included insects in their 

 dietary. 



OPvTHOPTERA. 



Forficulidce. — Fourteen species of birds had taken these insects, 

 namely, the Pied Myna, a flycatcher, a chat, two wagtails, the Hawk- 

 Cuckoo, a water-hen {A. phoenicunis), two plovers, two sandpipers and a 

 ■spoonbill. The Black Ibis and the Spotted Owlet pa took of these insects 

 more freely. The Earwig taken from Tickell's Blue Flycatcher was 

 Labidura riparia. 



Bla'tidcB. — Cockroaches were noticed in the stomach of a Grey 

 Hornbill and repeatedly in those of the Yellow-fronted Pied Wood- 

 pecker. 



Man^iicB.— Mantids were taken from seven birds including Dicrurus 

 ater and Acrocephalus stentoreus. Of identified species Humhertiella 

 indica was taken by Sylvia, jerdoni, Hierodula westivood. by th ■ Grey 



