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ponds to the English spring, when the passion of the earth is at its highest, 

 because there is in India no sad and dismal winter-time, when life is sluggish 

 and feeble. 



The excessive joy, the rapture, the ecstasy with which we greet spring 

 in the British Isles is, to a certain extent, a reaction. There suddenly rushes 

 in upon the songless winter a mighty chorus, a tumult of birds, to which 

 we can scarcely fail to attach a fictitious value. 



India possesses some song birds which can hold their own in any 

 •company. Were the Shama {Cittocincla macrura), the Magpie Robin 

 (Copsychus saulat is), the Fan-tailed Fly-catcher {Rhipidura albifrontata), the 

 Orange-headed Ground Thrush {Geocichla citrina), the White Eye {Zosterops 

 palpebtosa), the Purple Sunbird {Arachnechthra aswtica), and the Bhiinraj 

 {Dissemutus paridiseus), to visit England in the summer, they would 

 supplant, in popular favour, some of our English song birds. 



FKARl,KSSNKSS OK INDIAN BIRDS. 



Indian birds generally are characterised by their fearlessness of man. 

 It were easy to occupy a whole hour in citing examples of this. A few must 

 suffice. Pied Wagtails {Motacilla maderaspa/ensis), Brown Rock Chats 

 {Cercomela fused), which some believe to be the '"Sparrows" of Scripture, 

 Sparrows proper, Mynas (Acridolheres tristis), Spotted Owlets {Athene 

 bramd), Doves (Turtur cambayensis). Roller Birds {Coracias indica), Tits 

 {Pants mouticola), Swifts {Cypselus affinis), and Robins {Thamnobia cambai- 

 ■ensis), have all, at some time or other, elected to share my bungalow with 

 me, building in the walls, under the roof of the verandah, or on a window 

 ledge. Similarly Hoopoes {Upupa indica) and Magpie Robins {Copsychus 

 Saulatis) frequently have nested in holes in the mud walls of servants' 

 houses in the compound. Tailor birds {Orthotomus sulorius), Sunbirds of 

 two species {Arachnechthra asiatica and A. zeylonica) and Bulbuls of three 

 (Molpastes hatmorrhous, M. bengalensis, 3f. intermedins), have constructed 

 their nests amid the leaves of plants growing in pots on my verandah. In 

 the garden, within thirty or forty yards of the house, the following have 

 brought up their families: Ring Doves {Turtur risonus), Paradise Fly- 

 catchers (Terpsiphone paradisi) , Fan-tailed Flycatchers (Rhipidura albijron- 

 tata), House Crows (Corvus splendensj , Corbies {Corpus mac/irorhynchus), 

 Tree Pies {Dendrocitta rufa), Crow Pheasants {Centropus sinensis), Paddy 

 Birds {Atdeola grayi), Green Barbets {Thereicetyx zeylonicus), Coppersmiths 

 (Xantholaema haetnatocephala), Woodpeckers {Brachypterus auranlius), 

 Green Parrots {Palaeoinisnepalensis and P. torquatus), Shikms {Astur badius), 

 Kingfishers {Halcyon smymensis, Alcedo ispida, and Ceryle rudis), Babblers 

 {Crate/opus canorus and Argya caudata), Kites (Milvtts govinda), Orioles 

 {Oriolus kundoo, O. melanocephala), King Crows {Dicrurus), and others 

 which I either omitted to notice or fail to recollect. 



Verily is the Indian avifauna one of superlatives. Judging from what 

 I have read of the feathered folk that inhabit other parts of the world, it 



