Plant Sanitation. 



128 



[February, 1912. 



and is certainly avoided by most birds— 

 I was informed by a careful observer 

 that numbers of a large hawk (species 

 undetermined) appeared at the time of 

 the swarms and fed upon the locusts. 

 Kingfishers also vary their diet with 

 beetles of many kinds. The thrush 

 tribe, though sometimes condemned for 

 their partiality to fruit, pay for their 

 dessert by their incessant war against 

 slugs and snails. Cuckoos and their 

 cousins the 'Coucals' (of which our 

 'Jungle' or 'Pheasant Crow' isafamiliar 

 example) devour large numbers of 

 caterpillars as a set-off against their 

 nest-robbing habits, I can remember 

 shooting a cuckoo, in the days when 

 Ceylon was rejoicing in the Cinchona 

 boom, and finding its stomach packed 

 with the hugo green caterpillars of the 

 ' Cinchona hawk moth.' The Ceylon 

 Crow has, on more than one occassion, 

 proved a blessing to tea planters in the 

 Kelani Valley districts. When 'Nettle 

 Grub ' was ravaging the^e estates, daily 

 flights of crows used to arrive, e;>eh 

 morning, from Colombo, to gorge upon 

 the caterpillars. I have been told that 

 many of them became so replete that 

 they could scarcely fly. A similar 

 immigration of crows was observed 

 during a plague of ' Lobster ' caterpillars 

 in the Kalutaia district. 



To list all the species that are known 

 to feed more or less upon insects in 

 Ceylon would be almost equivalent to 

 compiling a catalogue of the birds of the 

 Island. I must content myself by men- 

 tioning only some of those that are more 

 exclusively insectivorous. 



It will be unnecessary for me to specify 

 the individual names ; nor will you be 

 particularly interested in the correct 

 scientific names. I here give a list of 

 the number of species of the birds that 

 devote themselves more particularly to 

 an insect diet, arranging them in families 

 by their popular names :— 



Woodpeckers, 



Cuckoos and Coucals,. 



Trogons, 



Hoopoes, 



Rollers, 



Bee-eaters, 



Swifts, 



Nightjars, 



Shrikes, 



Minivets, 



Drongos, 



Flycatchers, 



Robins, 



Thrushes, 



Bulbuls, 



Warblers, 



Tits, 



10 species. 



15 „ 



1 „ 



1 „ 



2 „ 



3 „ 

 6 „ 



4 „ 

 6 „ 

 2 „ 



5 „ 

 10 „ 



5 „ 



8 „ 



10 „ 



15 „ 



1 » 



Nuthatches, 



Sunbirds, 



Flower-peckers, 



White-eyes, 



Swallows, 



Wagtails, 



Pipits, 



Wood Swallows, 

 Painted Thrushes, 



1 species. 



1 :: 



2 „ 

 4 „ 

 4 „ 



3 



1 „ 

 1 



This makes up a total of 137 distinct 

 species of birds ready to assist the agri- 

 culturist in the task of keeping the 

 teeming insect world within reasonable 

 bounds. Some of the species that I have 

 included in my list are extremely rare, 

 and others are confined to particular 

 localities, but it is probable that at least 

 half of them may be found within the 

 boundaries of the Uva Province. 



Although, as I have said, it is difficult 

 to estimate the exact debt that we owe 

 to the agency of birds, we know enough 

 to assert, with confidence, that a country 

 without birds would be a desolate 

 country indeed. Every green thing 

 would soon be devoured by the hordes 

 of insects that would multiply without 

 hindrance, and man himself would soon 

 be driven from the desert that would be 

 evolved. 



LEGISLATION AGAINST INSECT 

 PESTS AND PLANT DISEASES. 



(From the Nature No. 2195, Vol. 88 

 November 23, 1911.) 



The effect to secure national legislation 

 to keep out new and dangerous insect 

 pests or plant diseases which may be 

 brought in with imported nursery stock 

 has been actively favoured by the U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture, just as the 

 department in the past has promoted 

 and secured legislation enabling it to 

 exclude from the country diseased 

 animals or to quarantine and stamp out 

 animal diseases whenever such have 

 appeared. In the case of domestic 

 animals, the exercise of these powers 

 has brought enormous benefit, and has 

 worked entirely satisfactorily to the 

 live stock industry. It is reasonable to 

 believe that like benefits to fruit and 

 forest interests, including the nursery 

 business, will undoubtedly come from 

 similar legislation to exclude insect pests 

 and plant diseases. 



The immediate danger which led to 

 the recent effort to secure legislation 

 was the discovery in 1909 of the abundant 

 importation and wide distribution into 

 the United States of nursery stock 

 infested with brown-tail moth nests and 

 occasional egg masses of the gipsy moth. 

 During the year 1909 and 1910 such 



