A Calcutta Bird Colon 



y 



mon in the East (Pkalocrocorax javanicus), a 

 more gracefully-formed bird than most of its 

 tribe, and only about as large as a jackdaw. 

 These birds rapidly increased in numbers, and 

 conquered a portion of the island for themselves. 

 Henceforth cormorants and herons lived together, 

 if not in amity, at least with mutual toleration, 

 and both parties bred in close proximity, building 

 their stick nests on the boughs of the trees. The 

 cormorants might often be seen away from the 

 island, perched in the garden trees and tearing 

 twigs from them after the manner of our rooks, 

 while the herons for their part would often alight 

 on the water to pick up a floating stick. 



Except when they had eggs or young to attend 

 to, the cormorants and herons were not actually 

 much together in the island, as the former used 

 to be away all day, while, when they came in to 

 roost, the herons, being nocturnal, were going out 

 to prosecute their own business under cover of 

 darkness. At night one could frequently hear 

 their quacking croak as they passed overhead, 

 and they must have travelled far and wide for 

 food, as before there was much cormorant com- 

 petition their number was estimated at between 

 1300 and 1500. But the most interesting visitors 

 of all arrived with the cormorants in 1896, in the 

 shape of darters, or as they are called in India, 



snake birds (Plotus melanogaster). Every habi- 



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