6756 



Birds. 



though scattered clearings occur to some distance on each side the 

 road from the lowlands after it leaves the lower range, the forest sud- 

 denly approaches on either side at the gates leading to the house, 

 and, with this exception, closely hems in the whole pasturage. So 

 far as my observations go, no Hirundine goes in or over the forest for 

 food ; H. poeciloma ventures the furthest, but I have never seen it 

 exceed the pathways a few hundred yards from the edge. I would 

 estimate our usual allowance for these isolated pastures at about 

 twenty H. poeciloma, the same number of Progne, and two or three 

 pairs of H. euchrysea, rarely all these together ; for many hours in 

 the day not a single bird is visible, but still small numbers look round 

 from time to time. Early in the morning they are almost always 

 busy on the western hill ; towards evening the eastern hill and the 

 river beneath it have more attractions. On dissection of the stomachs 

 of any of these three species of birds, we shall arrive at very much the 

 same result : five or six species of insects, small beetles, small 

 Ichneumonidae, &c, with perhaps one large plant-bug ; in another, 

 shot soon after, many insects are the same, but some different, and 

 the plant-bug is replaced by two small bees ; in Progne the bees will 

 be more numerous, but accompanied by many small insects. So that 

 though an expert entomologist (and I feel every ornithologist who 

 wishes to progress ought to know at any rate something about the 

 kindred science) might be able to say with certainty, this bird has 

 been shooting round the mangos, that has been skimming over the 

 grass, — there would be no marked characteristic deducible, save that 

 these birds evidently hawked over a certain space, and took any suit- 

 able insect that happened to come in their way ; in fact, that they 

 were local feeders. But in the case of Acanthylis collaris the results 

 are very different. I give four cases of birds, for the most part shot 

 at great intervals, both as to time and locality : — 



" Stomach examined March 6, 1858. A small species of Coleoptera, 

 with a few of a second species, and one large insect. 



" Stomach examined August 1, 1859. The winged females of a very 

 small species of ant, a few other insects, and one or two bees. 



" Stomachs examined August 20, 1859. First bird : numerous small 

 green beetles, one or two bees, and six wasps whole and just swal- 

 lowed, which I could not distinguish from a specimen of Polistes 

 rubiginosa? building in the verandah. Second bird, an hour and a 

 half later: traces of the same small beetles but slight, antenna) of a 

 Capricorn beetle, and a mass composed of disjointed segments, empty 

 legs, thoraces of some wasps ; little clots were composed entirely of 



