112 NATURAL HISTORY. 



Only one tribe of birds remains to notice — the fishing birds proper, 



headed by the pelican. I have once seen the great white pelican of 



Europe in Khandesh, and the Indian grey pelican is occasionally 



met with all over the region, and may breed in it. The smaller 



white pelican may be found, but I do not know of any record 



of it here. Pelicans, indeed, want more fish and bigger fish than they 



can often find in our present waters. Even their lesser kindred, the 



European and Chinese cormorants, are not common, probably for 



the same reason, but another poor relation, the little cormorant, 



Pelicanus javanicus is everywhere. There is hardly so small a 



puddle that you will not find one or two of these amusing birds on it, 



and on very moderate-sized pools a flock will alight and worry the 



water in all directions till every fish, crab, and prawn is either eaten 



or driven into cover. They have favourite roosting places to which 



they fly from a long distance, and about sunset the flocks follow each 



other rapidly, always following the course of the water. They are 



bold and familiar birds, and will come and fish in front of a tent for 



hours, and sometimes attach themselves to buffaloes in the water, as 



cattle-egrets do. A solitary buffalo, which used to spend its day 



in the water near my tents, was attended by, apparently, a particular 



cormorant, who would dive off on one side and come up on the other, 



passing even between the fore or hind legs, and then spreading 



his wings to dry as he perched the buffalo's head or back ; the latter 



did not seem to object at all. Probably his body attracted small fish, 



of which some species are very curious, and will come bobbing their 



noses against any new object, to the great discomfort of nervous or 



thin-skinned bathers. It is just possible that they know enough 



about a buffalo to calculate on finding ticks on him, but this is a 



mere conjecture. The little cormorant is much given to perching 



on trees. Even the larger European cormorant does so more freely 



here than in Europe, confirming the statement in Paradise Lost — 



" Upward he flew, and like a cormorant, 

 Perched on the tree of life." 



Milton can hardly have had many opportunities of observing 

 cormorants ; and I have even known the passage to be criti- 

 cised by English observers as untrue to the habits of the 

 bird, hut the poet was right. The Mahrattas call the cormorants 

 " Pdn-kawala" or water-crow — a very good name. This bird 

 breeds in trees, and no doubt sometimes within our region. But 

 I have not got the nest here, and I have noticed that cormorants 



