A CALCUTTA BIRD COLONY 



During the years in which I resided in Calcutta, 

 one of the greatest attractions in the Zoological 

 Gardens there was the colony of wild fish-eating 

 birds of various kinds which inhabited the islands 

 in an ornamental lake. One of these was a mere 

 spot of land, just sufficient to support a clump of 

 pandanus or " screw-pine," but the other was of 

 fair size, and comparable to those in St. James's 

 Park or Regent's Park ; and, like them, supported 

 a good growth of trees. This was at first in- 

 habited only by the common pond-heron or paddy 

 bird (Ardeola grayi), a pied heron about equalling 

 a pigeon in size, and one of the commonest birds 

 in India, This bird is found wherever there are 

 trees and water, and I knew of a colony in a 

 town garden in Calcutta which had to be broken 

 up as a nuisance. The presence of these birds in 

 the Zoo, which is in the suburbs of Calcutta, was 

 therefore not surprising ; but the subsequent 

 colonisation by other species, as related by my 

 friend Rai Ram Brahma Sanyal Bahadur, the 

 Superintendent of the Gardens, was rather re- 

 markable. He tells the story in the Proceedings 

 of the Asiatic Society, and from this account it 



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