I o 8 Indian Museum Notes. [Vol. IV. 



ii. On the possible utilization of the •* Green Bug" 

 OF Calcutta as food for birds, etc. 



By F. Finn, B.A., F.Z.S., Deputy Superintendent of the 

 Indian Museum, 



Residents in Calcutta must frequently have been struck by the 

 often inconvenient abundance of a small Homopterous insect of the 

 Jassid family in the early part of the "cold weather." These 

 " green bugs, " about the size of a very full-fed mosquito, fly in 

 swarms round lamps, and are found often in large quantities, dead 

 beneath these in the morning. 



It struck me some time ago that these insects, so easily obtain- 

 able in bulk, could very well be utilized as food for various cage- 

 birds needing constantly or occasionally an insect diet, now supplied 

 by fanciers in the form of the so-called " ant's eggs" (in reaUty 

 ant's cocoons) of the trade. 



Having procured in 1895 (I think) a small quantity I let them 

 dry, and offered them as food to various more or less insectivorous 

 birds at the Zoological Gardens here, and found that they were 

 taken very well. Last year Mr. Barlow, of the Museum staff, 

 kindly had a larger quantity collected for me, with which I again 

 experimented both with birds of my own and with those at the 

 Zoological Gardens, and again with encouraging results. 



I also forwarded samples of a pound each to two well-known 

 English amateurs of cage-birds, Dr. A. G. Butler of the British 

 Museum, and Mr. Reginald Phillips ; and also to the Superin- 

 tendent of the London Zoological Gardens and to Spratt's Patent 

 Company. 



From the two latter I have received as yet no reply, but some 

 time ago I received very courteous answers from the two amateurs 

 above named. 



Dr. Butler says : — "I have tested the insects as food for birds and 

 find that they are eaten greedily, both dry and mixed with soft 

 food, not only by insectivorous birds, but also by such almost strict- 

 ly granivorous birds as canaries. 



We have for years past had an European representative of 

 the Jassidas sold in the bird-market as food under the name of 

 'dried flies!' It is a much larger species than yours, being 

 equal in size to our British * Frog hoppers ' and is doubtless 

 European. The Indian species, however, evidently attracts birds 

 by its bright green colouring, whereas the so-called 'dried flies' 

 are whity-brown like ant's cocoons. 



