ODDITIES IN DIET 35 



Vulture will devour not only spoilt figs, as recorded 

 by Tristram, but even despoil date-trees of their 

 crop. So also among birds generally regarded as 

 purely insectivorous, Swallows in North America 

 are known to feed on the berry of the Wax-Myrtle 

 {Myrica cerifera) in autumn, and among the worm- 

 eating waders the RuflF and the Black-tailed Godwit 

 eagerly devour rice and, other grain, such as wheat 

 and millet. 



The Game-birds would perhaps be better regarded 

 as omnivorous, like the Rails, and most fruit-eaters, 

 like Toucans and Hornbills, eat small animals 

 freely when they can catch them. The Barbets, 

 which seem to be the unspecialized ancestors of 

 the Toucans — if these really are a distinct family 

 at all— -show a curious contrast in habit according 

 to their distribution, though all much alike in 

 structure ; the Asiatic species are mostly fruit- 

 eaters, while the African and South American species 

 are largely insectivorous. With the Trogons, which 

 have an equally wide distribution and are still 

 more alike structurally, matters are almost exactly 

 the other way about ; the old-world species, chiefly 

 to be found in Asia, though one or two are African, 

 being insectivorous, while the American kinds live 

 mainly oji berries, which they gather on the wing. 



One interesting point comes out from this con- 

 sideration of bird-diet, and that is, that the largest 

 birds, and those which, as groups, display the finest 

 plumage, are more or less vegetarian, while those 

 whose power of flight is pre-eminent range them- 



