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1 L THE FOOD OF BIRDS C W MASON, IN INDIA M.S E.A.C, THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESENTED BY PROF CHARLES A KOFOID AND MRS PRUDENCE W KOFOID ) Jnly l&t ENTOMOLOGICAL SBRIBS Vol III MEMOIRS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURK IN INDIA THE FOOD OF BIRDS IN INDIA BY C W MASON, M.S.B.A.C., Entomologist, Imperial Department of Agriculture for India Lately Su/ternumerary EDITED BY H MAXWELL-LEFROY, M.A F.K.S., F.Z.S., Imperial Entomologist AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE, PUSA PUBLISHED BY THB IMPERIAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE IN INDIA THACKER, SPINK & W THACKER & CO., 2, CALCUTTA CREED LANB, LONDON CO., CALCUTTA : PRINTED BY THACKKK, SPINK AND c< CO PREFACE THE the following pages contain a Food of Birds in India, summary the recorded facts of of and a statement of the food of the individual birds shot or observed by Mr Mason at Pusa in 1907, been necessary to edit the original manuscript 1908, 1909 and I have added a short section (IV) in which I have tried to sum It has up the reader practical results who is and to make the question clearer to the responsibility ends there, not an Entomologist My of birds will find Mr Mason's observations in the and the student body of the work The was partly done by the identification of the insects in the stomachs staff in charge of the collections here and Mr C H Tipper kindly identified the Molluscs in the Indian Museum I have revised the nomenclature of the insects throughout and believe it to be correct ; the author is responsible for the ident- ification of the birds The identification of material in the stomachs not easy and we will gladly what is has not been possible in the case of the seeds we can to assist other observers in this respect with insects ; send preserved stomachs, but we can only caie of birds shot in the plains will they so, as a rule, in the H M L M3667P8 if THH: FOOD OF BIRDS IN INDIA BY Lately W MASON, M.S.K.A.O., Supernumerary Entomologist, Imperial Deparment of Agriculture for India EIUTRD BY H MAXWELL LEB^ROY, M.A., F.K.S., F.Z.B., Imperial Entomologist INTRODUCTION This what largely a compilation from various sources of known of the food of Indian birds at the present time paper little is It contains also is numerous field notes on the food of the common species of the plains together with the records of 1,325 stomachs which have been examined in the laboratory Many of the quotations are practically reduplications of each other, and they have been quoted in order to have all references from the works of vaone paper, and therefore in the form which anyone interested in economic ornithology may find most useful In most rious authors in cases, especially with the game birds and ducks, I have quoted in paraphrasing only where a full quotation was unnecessary In the case of the birds I have myself been able to examine, the full, compounded with my own field The literature at my notes, the reference being acknowledged disposal has been somewhat limited and there may be records in references have frequently been papers and works already existing which I have been unable to conI have quoted from Evans (Cambridge Natural History, sult Birds), as this work, though necessarily not containing much more THE FOOD OF BIRDS IN INDIA than a wide generalization of the food of birds, and much of which does not apply directly to India, gives a very good idea of what the food of various orders of birds consists a great deal of literature from other countries on the food of many of our Indian birds, and in all probability foods of There is widely distributed species differ but We cannot, however, assume that this a bird beneficial or injurious in is little in different localities is so, nor even that because one country it is equally so in another, where climatic conditions and food supply are We of Indian birds in India must know the food different The following works have been consulted, and the abbreviation used in the text are here given "Birds of India." " birds of India, Game Jerdon _ Burma and Ceylon." : Hume and Indian Museum Notes Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal "Fauna of British India." and Blandford Stuart Baker Birds Gates " Indian Ducks and their Allies." Evans Cambridge Natural History " Game, Shore and Water Birds." A le Messurier "Biidsof the Plains." Dewar "The Indian Crow." Dewar Manual of Forest Zoology Stebbing Watt, Dictionary of Economic Products of India 'Birds." District Gazetteers for Marshall Jerd B I H M G B I M N B N H S J A S F I S B I D A E B C N H , B A le M Dewar B P Dewar I C S M F Z Watt Assam, Baluchistan, Bombay, Central Madras, North-West Frontier Province, North-West Provinces, Province of Oudh, Punjab and of the Sirmur State The general account of birds in the Imperial Gazetteer has also been Provinces, consulted ; this latter account gives an excellent description of the general distribution of birds throughout India be noticed that some well-known papers such as "Stray Feathers" are not included in these works consulted as they were It will not available THE FOOD OF BIRDS IN INDIA 362 grasshopper The white-eyed Buzzard Eagle and the Brahminy Kite are beneficial, the common Pariah Kite also, except where fowls are kept, are beneficial and the Shikra and Crested Buzzard Honey Of the Doves and Pigeons, the Bengal Green Pigeon is neutral, the Spotted Dove and Indian Ring Dove injurious, though of little and The Black Partridge importance is distinctly beneficial and deserves Button the while protection, Quail is less distinctly beneficial The White-breasted Waterhen importance They are shot for food to a very slight extent probably are of no economic is beneficial, the Bengal Florican is doubtful, though insect eating, not sufficient stomachs to decide what proportion of its The Stone Curlew and Red-Wattled Lapwing are injurious as there are food is Indian Spur-winged Plover neutral, the Little Ringed Plover and the Sand-pipers doubtful, the Redshank and Little beneficial, the Stint neutral, while the common Snipe is mildly beneficial but not important Of the Ibises, Storks, Herons, &c., the Black Ibis I rank as an injurious bird, but I admit this to be open to opinion as the frogs it eats are balanced by such insects as Agrotis and Prodenia and as the frogs' value is by no means certain There is no definite case either way on the evidence, perhaps, and the same applies to the Common Herons, in this case feeding on frogs The Cattle Egret a markedly beneficial bird deserving of protection, while the Pond Heron is distinctly not beneficial by feeding largely on Dragonflies Of the Swans, Ducks and Geese, the Garganey or Blue-winged Teal is is neutral, as are probably all its allies from our point of view In considering this question from the agricultural aspect, in a tract such as Behar, the conclusion one comes to in that there are numbers of common birds which are extremely beneficial, which deserve protection, and which in the main are not affected by man at all They neither need protection nor can they be enthe Indian Roller or couraged There are, however, exceptions its Blue Jay is shot to some extent on account of plumage it should large : ; be rigidly protected and the export of its skins prevented The birds MASON AND LEFROY 363 eaten as Ortolans should be protected, if protection is possible their value as food is totally insignificant as compared with their ; value to agriculture Crows are not destroyed probably to any great The King-Crow could probably be very greatly helped extent in paddy lands by the provision of perches, and this probably applies to other crops not tall enough to act as perches for them The could Mynahs probably be very much encouraged by planting trees of the Ficus genus, such as the Pipal, Baryar, Gular, Pakour, &c., as roadside trees, which supply food and shelter, and which to help break of maintain such a number a pest occurs the of birds birds are that there when an out- eat the to insects is For the Hoopoe, Spotted Owlet, and the Kites, no protection probably needed or practicable The Black Partridge is shot, but number shot ficant one The the in so large an area Cattle Egret is as India must be a very insignithe only bird other than the Indian Roller coming among those of first class importance to agriculture, among those here dealt with, which requires protection The Egrefcs are said to be destroyed in very large quantities during the breeding season on account of the train of pectoral feathers valued as It is not certain how far other Egrets are valuable decorations ; one has an undoubted agricultural importance and deserves It and the Indian Roller are the only two birds amorg protection this those exported (see p 23 above) which are distinctly known to be On the other hand, the Black Ibis, the Pond Heron and beneficial other frog-eating birds are probably injurious from our point of view, while the Egrets proper (Herodias spp.) are of very doubtful im- The Rose-ringed Parroquet and probably it is undoubtedly parroquets are extremely destructive, and portance in agriculture all good of India that they are killed, though the export of their " " Cowhair to Singaskins is forbidden and they are shipped as who has lived in the pore for re-shipment to England To anyone and seen the havoc wrought on fruit, on maize and other crops, for the plains even on the leaves of trees, such as teak, by parroquets, their plumage incomprehensible that the export of is it will be forbidden No THE FOOD OP BIRDS IN INDIA 364 bird is there is so destructive in Behar as the Rose-ringed Parroquet and not a word to be said in its favour which should be destroyed, the Beeeaters, the House-sparrow and the common Indian Green Barbet are the only ones included in the birds investigated here and which Of other destructive birds, occur commonly in Behar What is the economic value of these birds which live in densely One has only to read the lists of cultivated areas, such as Behar ? the food of the beneficial species to get an idea of the immense part insects have they play in reducing insect damage Nearly all special enemies such as parasites which attack each individually, but which produce alternative abundance and scarcity of each insect that is, with the natural action of the special checks such as parasites, ; " " this is Waves of insect pest and parasite you get alternate where the birds' importance is shown they are not restricted, they eat many kinds of insects and when a pest has for the time got ahead and is abundant, the birds are there to feed on it just because it is abundant and because at one time one is abundant, at another ; ; and the birds eat them all To put it figuratively they cut off the tops of the waves and tend to keep them all at a uniform level, none being ever destructively abundant In my opinion from man's point of view this is the special function in time another is, nature of birds and sects are frequent the bird population is small, outbreaks of inTo gain a better idea of their action read over if the groups of insects they eat (pp 323-345) Locusts and grasshop" pers are all injurious and they are eaten by practically every species of insectivorous bird and form one of the main supplies from which birds in India draw their food/' bird taking a mantis which jurious bherwa is We have only one record of a usually a beneficial insect (Schizodactylus monstrosus) is taken by The many in- birds Termites (White-ants) are, when they emerge from the nest in the flying state, eaten voraciously and probably few escape Yet every one of these flying females is capas also are the injurious crickets able of starting a new nest if it can escape long enough to burrow into the soil, and undoubtedly the birds destroy an enormous per- MASON AND LEFROY centage The pheasants, known " to nests Phasiamdce-s,re, ing in the It is Parasitic 365 partridges, quail, jungle fowl to feed on them at all times, even and other " scratch- get them extremely significant that there is no record of one of the Hymenoptera, the Ichneumons, as food of our birds ; on insect attack and are nearly all parasites They are extremely abundant and apparently wholly untouched by birds, while they are the greatest direct check on insect increase we have were birds addicted to feeding on them, it would be extremely hard to assess their value and it immensely increases they are the direct checks ; the value of birds that they not feed on them, Of the wasps, ruby- wasps, and digger wasps, which in the main are beneficial, there are a few records but not a large amount For the bees, the Bee-eaters are very destructive and we have no good word to say for these birds As a rule the bees, wasps and rubywasps are not eaten and are more immune, which, as most are beneficial, is to the credit of the birds Many birds feed on ants but, while ants good, they also or less harm, and a world over-run by unchecked ants would be unbearable to man Birds feed largely on Dung-beetles which we here regard aa neutral they feed also on Cockchafers which are distinctly destructive, and fortunately they feed on the grubs turned up by the ; plough, this being the destructive stage A few birds feed on Cicindelids while many feed on Carabids, both beneficial groups probably and both extremely abundant .Of the very abundant Coccinellids (Lady -bird beetles), very few are found to be eaten by birds, probably partly owing to their habits and small size, and partly to their distastefulness Coccinellids are usually found on leaves, feeding on plant-lice, etc., and birds earnot as a rule get insects off leaves unless by hovering, as they have no support while feeding this is a point of very great importance in considering what birds eat ground insects are easily preyed on by birds but insects on leaves are not since the bird cannot perch on the leaf and must either make a dart or hover when an outbreak ; ; ; o ^caterpillars occurs, the birds not gather till the caterpillars THE FOOD OF BIRDS 366 *1N INDIA descend to pupate as soon as the caterpillars come down to the soil the birds can get them and until then they seem to pay little attention to them We have noticed this markedly in outbreaks of cater; on crops such as castor the caterpillars are quite safe so long but as soon as they descend as they are on the large, thin leaves the Mynahs and Hoopoes are after them in great numbers Coccinellids never need to come down as they pupate on the leaves and the pillars ; ; beetles and larvae feed on the insects on leaves as a rule are of less importance to agriculture than to forestry, but the fact that the Black Partridge feeds on the cotton The Buprestids stem-borer (Sphenoptera gossypii) is worth noting Several birds on Opatrum depressum, a species now known to be destructive to gram, potatoes, etc., and the various Tenebrionids, so common on the soil, are the food of many birds Most are harmless but the birds Cantharids are not eaten are probably an important check on them feed economic importance is very doubtful Considering their enormous number, the Chrysomelids are very little eaten and it is surprising that so few Cerambycids are found except by bustards ; their " " Weevils are taken by practically every insectivorous bird and are of very great economic importance, being destructive in very many Several of our important pests are of such weevils as Tanymecus, Myllocerus, this family and the fact that and Rhynchophorus are eaten is significant In the Lepidoptera, Butterflies and Moths, we find the greatest cases and never beneficial food of birds in the countless caterpillars eaten, not one of which can be reckoned as beneficial with the sole exception of the wild tusser caterpillars, while Here we would draw are extremely destructive pests attention to a point nearly always many special ignored by writers, the fact that birds cannot get the caterpillars on many crops until the caterpillars come down to the soil Watch caterpillars on castor, for instance they are practically untouched ; they are full grown because the bird can get no foot-hold on the leaf, and the caterpillar from hatching to maturity rests on the leaf Erqolis merione for instance rests all day in the very middle till of the upper surface of the leaf and is quite safe ; it of course never MABON AND LEFfcOY 367 pupating on the leaf This does not apply to caterpillars feeding on low plants that a Mynah for instance can comes down to the and soil, pupate in the soil, as the Sphingids, there is that risky period when they must descend and seek a place to burrow into the soil Most so at night but many pro get at, for all caterpillars that bably perish and in a big caterpillar attack, it is very striking to see the birds collect to feed when the caterpillars descend to pupate ; we use by cutting bands of the crop across which the caterpillars can pass only on the soil where the birds can get them and from the rapidity with which birds come this in fighting caterpillar attacks evident they watch insects pretty closely The reason so many Noctuid larvaa hide during the day is probably simply to escape the birds, and if one watches caterpillars one can get a picture of the it is watch kept by the birds and the ceaseless attempts of the caterpillars to evade them Apart from direct observation one can ceaseless infer it by the devices so common among caterpillars to escape the observation of, not parasites, but birds This is a subject that could be discussed in very great detail, but would be out of place here In estimating the actual food of birds, one must remember that caterpillars are soft, are very often squashed or torn by the bird and are not easy to recognise at all Our knowledge of Indian caterpillars is not detailed we have had to collect and compare caterpillars of many kinds in India to be able to recognise even our pests from the caterpillar stage alone and as a rule when a bird has taken caterpillars one cannot identify them in or before the process of eating ; ; we have to rely more upon observation than upon detailed stomach a very great role in checking caterpillars alone, and I believe that the reason why a big caterpillar outbreak is seldom followed by another big brood is due to the work records I attribute to birds of birds in catching the pupating Iarva3 as much as to the action of If this is true, then the direct action of birds in preservparasites immensely important, but it is a matter difficult of direct the influence proof and must depend upon one's personal estimate of ing crops of birds is THE POOD OF BIRDS 368 The INDIA (Diptera) are of less importance directly and not in stomach records except with such birds as swallows* flies much figure Iff catchers and bee-eaters Probably Dragonbut among birds only the swallows and their allies probably exert much influence on the numbers of With the Plant Bugs (Hemiptera Heteroptera) we have a flies minor importance, and in which the acrid scent is probably of group swifts, flies wagtails, fly feed immensely on small flies a protection, though some birds eat them The Painted Bug (Bagrada picta) is for instance taken very little despite its abundance our worst bug-pest, the -Rice Bug, is not recorded at all, though ', very common by four ; the Red Cotton Bug (Dysdercus cingulatus) is taken though at times immensely abundant, and though may draw attention to the fact that the beneficial birds only, inodorous We predaceous bugs (Amyoteince, Reduviidce, eaten by birds etc.), not seem to be In the Homopterous bugs, birds little to check their increase even with such abundant forms as Pyrilla aberrans : this may be due to the difficulty of actually getting them off the leaves of the Aphids are eaten by some birds which seem to be specially adapted to feeding on small plants and eating them, but it is doubtful how far they help to check them Scale insects are little cane plant recorded, except the Giant Mealy they are fed on to some extent In summary we have but persons to finite , tried to picture generally the influvalue of birds, but this is difficult to present vividly to any this ence and Bug (Monophlebus) but probably whom injurious the names of the insects really represent deinsects, which cause large losses to agriculture The impression one gains by reading the detailed records and by cor- with one's knowledge of the insects is of a ceaseless war waged by birds, not as a war but as the daily search for food, on edible insects which are mainly those destructive ones which have a relating it compensating very high ratio of increase and which are ceaselessly breeding and increasing against the ravages caused in their nunobeis by their enemies stant ; one can picture the menace (not known to caterpillars living under con- them) of discovery by birds ; they are itASON AND LEFHOY 369 not exempt even in their pupal condition in the soil, the Hoopoe especially probably getting many in this way'; even as moths they are attacked, though in this stage their protective attitudes and colouration protects them to some extent So too for almost every class of destructive insect grasshoppers are extensively eaten and : protection, except when on swaying plants which afford foothold to birds even the larger locusts are attacked ter- have little little ; ; mites are enormously eaten in the stage in which they are capable of forming new nests Beetles are extensively eaten and so are> to a less extent, the bugs On the other hand there is little destruc- tion of predaceous insects which are beneficial to agriculture enormous host of parasitic Ichneumons and Tachinid flies ; the are not eaten, Mantids, predaceous bugs, the predaceous Asilids are practithe insects feeding on Aphides, the Ladybird cally untouched ; and Chrysopids are untouched the digger wasps and true wasps which constantly check insects are not fed on and there is scarcely a beneficial insect which is checked to any extent by birds beetles ; ; To anyone who has studied the influence of these this immunity they have is an enormous factor and beneficial insects, in preserving the in maintaining that equable balance of life which balance of life never one species become destructively abundant but preserves lets an equality of It difficult to is and that to man, the really important thing overestimate the value of birds as a class and their all; is, special function seems to be, not so much the keeping down of individual destructive species (which is done by the special parasites each destructive insect has), as the cutting wave of increase, the checking of those off of the crest of the which by favour and become abun- insects of climatic or other influences elude their checks dant It crease must unfortunately not so clear how to encourage birds to inclearly, to increase the numbers of insect-feeding ones one is ; also increase the food are not checked and and the most we can to see that they that in every locality there are as many birds is these birds require only protection In the case of the King-Crow especially, I would extend the practice as the insect supply will feed, i.e., 24 THE POOD OF BIRDS 370 of perches in paddy fields and similar low crops by putting in upright sticks and branches, as is done in some places, simply in order to concentrate these birds where we most want them, in the paddy fields For our most important bird, the Mynah, I would advocate such as the pipal, banyan, gular, with shelter and with food so as to keep its num- the extensive planting of etc., as pioviding it bers up to the maximum fig trees can be done only by roadside tree the selection of trees for this purpose I would put : this planting and in greater value on these trees than on others The destruction of the Rufous Short-toed Lark or Ortolan should be totally prohibited and this bird should be recognised as one deserving of protection So also the Indian Roller or Blue Jay deserves protection The Spotted Owlet and Kites one cannot probably help as they are not but the Black Partridge deserves protection A great deal is written about the destruction of birds for plumage by two classes of people, those who want to protect them, killed, killed extensively and are smuggled of the out of India in spite prohibition of the export of the Plumage and who say they are shot or of Wild Birds in India, and those who want to let this export go on openly, as legitimate trade Of the birds known to be exported, the Cattle Egret and the Jay are the only ones we can definitely say Their destruction and exportation should are beneficial in any way and of all a mistake to prohibit this exportSo for the Ibises, Storks, and Herons there is no evidence plumage ation On the other hand, the Rose-Ringed Parroquet Parroquets deserve to be exterminated, and if exportation be prohibited will encourage this it is ; they anything but harm, and no argument for their preservaOn the other hand tion can be based on their beneficial action tha.t it is not possible to say that the birds killed for plumage are in the main destructive, or in any way affect the ryot The Parroquets do, as we have said, and they should be destroyed and the export The Egrets in general, the Peacocks, of their plumage made legal the Jungle Cocks, the King-Fishers, the Pheasants not affect the ryot Their destruction for plumage will not in any way benefit nor harm the ryot The destruction of Cranes, Parroquets and AND LBFROY some Herons 371 the ryot, while the destruction of the Cattle florets and the Jays will him damage It is evident that neither the bird protectionists nor the plumage exporters are wholly right ind that it will benefit is necessary to distinguish carefully in the case of each bird CONCLUSIONS (1) in In agricultural tracts, the birds play an indispensable part the protection of crops from insects (2) The following have an injurious action : Rose Ringed Parroquet and other P a rroquets The Cranes The Herons The House Sparrow Common (3) Indian Green Barbet The Bee-eaters The following deserve protection, being markedly bene- ficial The Indian Roller The Ortolan Crows (?) The King-Crow Mynahs The Hoopoe The Spotted Owlet Kites The Black Partridge The Cattle Egret Legislation to protect birds or to prohibit export of plumage needs to discriminate between beneficial and other birds (4) (5) lirect is to Tree-planting on roadsides way is of encouraging beneficial given to wild Fig trees and other probably the most important birds, especially trees, affording if preference food and shelter the birds feeding both on fruits and on insects H MAXWELL-LEFROY ... PREFACE THE the following pages contain a Food of Birds in India, summary the recorded facts of of and a statement of the food of the individual birds shot or observed by Mr Mason at Pusa in 1907,... containing much more THE FOOD OF BIRDS IN INDIA than a wide generalization of the food of birds, and much of which does not apply directly to India, gives a very good idea of what the food of various... for tically THE POOD OF BIRDS IN i INDIA furthering our knowledge of the food of nestlings- -is to obtain and cage a clutch of young birds, so placing them that the old birds will what food get