19 
[This bird] from the standpoint of the agriculturist is one of the most 
important species on the island. It should be protected, especially at nesting 
time, and encouraged by planting bamboos as permanent shelters along streams 
and drainage ditches. This species should hold its own and even increase 
largely, because of its adaptability to new conditions. The south coast 
especially, with the present area under irrigation, * * * is very favorable 
to the green heron, and this bird is one of the few economic species especially 
adapted to that region. 
The Porto Rican sparrow hawk or falcon (Falco sparverius 
loquacula) is another important enemy of the changa, the insect 
constituting about 29 per cent of this bird's total food. It is most 
common in the foothills. 
To encourage the birds about cane fields occasional high perches from 
which they can watch for prey should be provided along the fences. Their 
numbers should increase in the lowland region, as their natural food [con- 
sisting mainly of lizards and mice, in addition to insects] is abundant and 
easily obtained. 
Wetmore adds that although valuable insect-feeding lizards are 
eaten by the falcon, the reptiles are so numerous that no impression 
is made upon them, and this bird must be considered as a valuable 
species because it feeds so largely upon the changa. 
In St. Vincent the West Indian hawk (Buteo antillarum) is re- 
corded by Clark (12) as feeding to some extent upon the mole 
cricket, since the lizards, its more usual food, have been so greatly 
reduced in numbers by the mongoose. 
Domestic animals. — Barnyard fowls, especially chickens, have long 
been recognized as voracious feeders on the changa. Comparatively 
few of the mole crickets are accessible to them, and their usefulness 
is thereby restricted to areas which are being plowed or spaded. One 
writer (43) records that chickens in St. Vincent are frequently killed 
by devouring live mole crickets which burrow out of the alimentary 
canal. At this station two native Porto Rican chickens about 2 
months old were fed upon corn and live changas of all stages for 
about a week with no ill effects. 
Hogs, which are valuable in cleaning land of white grubs, are 
not averse to devouring changas. In very badly infested areas good 
results may be secured by turning in hogs to feed before setting out 
the crop. 
FUNGUS AND BACTERIAL DISEASES. 
A small percentage of changas in the breeding cages died from 
what seemed to be a fungus disease. An eighth-stage female which 
was submitted to Dr. Alden T. Speare, mycoentomologist of the 
Bureau of Entomology, of the United States Department of Agri- 
culture, was found to be infected by Metarrhizium anisoplw. Even 
under laboratory breeding conditions, which were by no means 
