45^> 
2  Texas-fever  ticks  {M.  anmiLatus  australis) ; 
one  fully  engorged  female,  the  other  partly 
so. 
13  small  geometrid  moth  caterpillars. 
I  spider,  in  fragments. 
I  chrysalis  (pupa)  of  a  noctuid  moth. 
34  seeds  of  Poriulaca  halimoides,  L.,  and 
minute  fragments  of  small  unrecognisable 
insects. 
No.  6.  Contents  :  7  Texas-fever  ticks  {M.  annulatus  australis), 
all  partly  engorged  females. 
64  large  dipterous  larvae  resembling  those  of 
the  genus  T ifula. 
3  geometrid  moth  caterpillars  and  remains  of 
numerous  others. 
I  pupa  of  a  large  Hymenopterous  insect,  half 
an  inch  in  length. 
No.  7.  Contents  :  Chiefly  fragments  of  moth  larvae  and  other 
insects,  with  one  small  pebble. 
The  total  number  of  ticks  found  in  the  six  birds  was  159.  As 
these  were  all  females,  it  will  be  seen,  had  they  been  left  to  mature, 
that  they  would  have  produced  between  them  over  1,000,000  eggs  or 
a  corresponding  number  of  young  grass  lice ;  so  that  the  value  of  the 
Tinkling  as  a  tick  destroyer  cannot  be  over  estimated.  We  gather 
from  these  records  also  that  it  feeds  very  largely  upon  the  caterpillars 
or  larvae  of  moths.  This  being  so,  it  is  only  fair  to  assume  that  it 
may  feed  upon  some  of  the  various  species  which  are  known  to  be 
destructive  to  various  cultivated  plants.  Whether  seeds  form  a  part 
of  its  regular  diet  the  writer  is  at  present  unable  to  say;  in  all 
probability  this  may  be  so  ;  but  the  seeds  may  have  been  taken  in 
lieu  of  pebbles  or  sand,  as  was  apparently  the  case  with  certain  other 
insectivorous  birds*  of  the  Island. 
*A  female  Radiolated  Woodpecker  {Centurus  radiolatus,  Wagl.)  which  had 
regaled  itself  with  cockroaches,  contained  also  five  of  the  large  black  spherical 
seeds  of  the  Bitterwood  {Ficraena  excelsa,  Lindl.),  about  the  size  of  a  buck-shot, 
which  were  so  hard  as  to  almost  resist  the  blade  of  a  knife.  Platypsnris  niger 
contained  seeds  of^  the  West  Indian  Birch  (Btirsera  gummifera,  L.),  the  Green 
Tody  [Todus  ytridis),  seeds  of  Pamcum  glutinosum,  S.,  and  other  seeds  which 
weie  not  identified.  A  rather  large  seed  was  also  taken  from  the  stomach  of  the  common 
Petchary  (Tyr annus  caudifasciatus,  D’Orby). 
