42 BOMBAY DUCKS 



The last-named is beating a hasty and somewhat 

 undignified retreat ; he is half sorry he came, his joy at 

 having angered the king-crows being tempered by the 

 fear of parting with a portion of his plumage. 



The king-crow is the pluckiest of birds. It is difficult 

 to name the creature of which he is afraid. One day 

 I happened to pass under a low tree in which some 

 drongos were sitting. These birds began to swear 

 lustily. I looked up to investigate the phenomenon, 

 and saw that there were in the tree three young king- 

 crows, fresh from the nest and scarcely able to fly. 



The birds were out of my reach, but notwithstanding 

 this the parents fluttered about my head in a state 

 of great excitement. Had I touched one of the 

 youngsters the father and mother would probably have 

 attacked my hand, and tried to take pieces of flesh out 

 of it. 



I once saw a couple of drongos treat a monkey very 

 shamefully. The mammal was squatting in the middle 

 of the road, and, to avoid the wheels of my cart and 

 the lash of my whip, took refuge in a neem tree. 



Now this tree happened to contain a king-crow's 

 nest. Before the monkey was half-way up the tree the 

 drongos were taking pecks at his head. The ape 

 looked very hurt at this outbreak of Hooliganism, 

 having of course no idea that the birds were merely 

 protecting their nest. He jumped into the next tree, 

 but the attack continued with unabated fury. 



So the monkey moved on again, but the king-crows 

 still continued to make dashes at his head, which must 

 have been aching badly by this time. The monkey 



