2 GAME BIRDS OF INDIA AND ASIA. 



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flight render it impossible for them to range far and 

 wide in times of famine, and hence they are liable 

 to perish from want, just as beasts do. On the 

 other hand, their speed of foot and habit of fre- 

 quenting, covea: secures them to a great extent 

 against birds of prey ; and their resident and gran- 

 ivorous habits render it easy for man to encourage 

 them to any extent by means of artificial feeding. 

 Thus, on the whole, they are easy birds to culti- 

 vate, and the ehcourageineht of a good stock should 

 be one of the studies of every forest officer. For 

 not only are the birds useful for food and as afford- 

 ing a healthy recreation, but they are of service in 

 a forest by destroying many noxious insects and 

 by turning over the leaves' and surface-soil in their 

 search for these and other food. In addition to 

 insects, some will eat niice and young snakes, so 

 that they are good general vermin-destroyers ; 

 and though they devour much seed and grain, 

 their own utility as food secures their being kept 

 from increasing to such an extent as to be a pest 

 themselves. 



There is another aspect from which game birds 

 are worthy of attention from a utilitarian point 

 of view. They carry, as a family, far the most 

 beautiful plumage of any group of birds ; I speak 

 after examining many specimens, dead and alive, 

 of the long-cdebrated Birds of Paradise. Not 

 only the peacocks but several of the pheasants far 

 excel all of these both in general brilliancy and in 

 the individual plumes which go to make up their 

 splendour ; while the tiny humming-birds and sun- 

 birds can never enter into competition with such 

 large species as are the pheasants and their kin. 

 Now, as humanity has always been constant to 



