i6i


bread, egg, fruit, worms and insects of anjr kind were all eaten,

more or less eagerly, but the greatest treat seemed to be meat,

raw or cooked, and particularly poultry. A chicken-bone hung

up in the cage was a source of constant enjoyment and was not

abandoned until it had been absolutely picked clean. This

greediness for a flesh diet may have been consequent upon the

previous poor living the birds had had to put up with, as I see in

last month’s Magazine that a correspondent could not get his

“ Mynah ” (what species ?) to eat meat.


The birds seemed very fond of bathing and drank a great

deal of water.


Eventually, I was able to obtain a fair number of the

birds which were duly shipped, but only a few survived. They

have since been observed from time to time and appear to

be prospering, but the locust plague having disappeared for the

time being, partly through favourable weather and the fadt that

locusts are “ out of season” so to speak, partly through the

attacks of a parasitic worm, (no doubt the larva of an ichneumon

fly,) the further introduction of “ Stumus tristis ” has been

given up, particularly as it is a very difficult matter to get the

birds intelligently looked after while at sea, which is perhaps the

greatest bar to their importation, and no doubt why one has to

pay from io/- to £1 for a bird which can be bought in Calcutta

for as little as 4d.


It remains to be seen whether the few individuals success¬

fully received will increase their kind, as newly introduced species

sometimes do with rapidity, and become eventually a boon to

the country, but on the other hand it is a question whether we

can interfere with the dispensations of Providence in these

matters without calling down upon us a worse trouble (as witness

the experiments with the mongoose, sparrow, rabbit, etc.) and

half-a-dozen specimens of “Stumus tristis” multiplied by “ x”

might eventually tire of locusts as a diet and find more congenial

sustenance in the fruit gardens, as the Rosy Pastor is said to have

done in Bourbon, where it was finally necessary to shoot him

without mercy.


The locust plague itself, it has been said, is largely due

to the land having been turned into pastures or cultivated, the

visitation never having attained such dimensions in the earlier

days of the country, and it is interesting here to remark that just

now River Plate “ estancieros ” have to contend with another

manifestation of nature’s resentment against the disturbance of

her balance of power in the shape of a plague of “ticks,”



