THE NATURALIST IN A TRAIN 83 



of every railway, sitting on the wires until an insect 

 comes within range, when the drongos at once take to 

 their wings and give chase. 



It is amusing to notice how the king-crow always 

 seeks shade when the sun is very hot. In the middle 

 of the day fully 80 per cent of the king-crow habituh 

 of the telegraph wire will be seen seated quite close to 

 a pole, so that its shadow falls upon them. 



The roller {Coracias indica), or blue jay, as it is more 

 commonly called in India, is another bird which is very 

 partial to the electric telegraph. It sits indiscriminately 

 on either wires or poles. 



Doves, too, are very fond of resting on the wires. 

 They are not insectivorous birds, and are, consequently, 

 not on the look out for prey, but love to sit in the sun, 

 especially in the early winter morning when the air is 

 still chilly, and in this attitude they ponder over the 

 problems which agitate the feathered world. The pretty 

 little bee-eater {Merops viridis) is another frequenter of 

 the telegraph wires. Very beautiful he looks in his 

 green dress as he sits facing the line, and still more 

 striking is his appearance when he makes a sudden 

 dash at some Lilliputian quarry, for, when flying in the 

 glare of the sun, his plumage assumes a golden hue. 



The birds perched on the telegraph wire, although 

 they absorb the greater part of one's attention, form 

 but a small fraction of the species to be seen during a 

 railway journey. It is no exaggeration to assert that a 

 traveller by rail from Peshawar to Madras should, aided 

 by a good field-glass, be able to distinguish fully one- 

 third of the commoner birds of India. 



