Birds seen in the Sitburbs of Calcutta l6l 



the size of a l)nlltiiicli. with forehead l)reast, and feet red, and 

 face yellow. Like all Barbets, its toes are in pairs. Its beak is 

 large and i)Owerful, to enable the bird to cut a round hole, the 

 diameter of its body, in a tree for nesting purposes. Unlike the 

 little boy who was told to be " seen, but not heard," the Copper- 

 smith is continuously heard l)Ut seldom seen, owing- to its pro- 

 tectixe green colouring. Kipling speaks of " Koel, little Keel, 

 singing on the iris bough," but it seems likely that he meant the 

 Coppersn.ith. A bird the size of a pigeon and nearly half a yard 

 long can hardly be referred to as " little!" 



()verhead, wheeling, and soaring, or perched on tall 

 trees or the to])s of houses, are numbers of Kites (Milviis guv- 

 inda). Their native name cJiccU like that of so many Indian 

 birds, is derived from their cry, cli-c c-c-c-l, drawn out almost to 

 a sciueal. The kite is, alas! little more than a scavenger; it fre- 

 quents slaughter-houses and meat-markets, and follows rubbish 

 carts. Meat exposed in a basket on a coolie's head as he walks 

 home from market is sure to be seized in the talons of a far- 

 seeing kite. Soldiers used to catch Kites by spreading a blanket 

 on the grounil. and tying a piece of meat in the middle of it. A 

 Kite swooping down at the meat would entangle its talons in 

 the blanket, and before they could be extricated the bird was 

 captured by hand. To show that the kite responds to kindness, 

 the following true tale will prove. About twenty years ago, 

 wdien the writer was staying" up in the Himalayas at about 7,000 

 feet altitude, he found an exhausted Kite one morning, blown 

 in his verandah during a terrific storm. After a feed, the Kite 

 was tethered by a leather strap to a wooden stand. The bird 

 was fed daily, and after a few weeks the strap was removed and 

 the bird liberated. To the writer's astonishment, the bird 

 showed no inclination to depart. Every day the Kite would go 

 for a fly, always returning to the verandah in which its stand was 

 kept. This went on for some months, until the Kite was ex- 

 changed with a friend for a large Owl. 



Thousands of feet up in the blue sky the Vultures soar 

 for hours, without a beat of the wings. At that great height 

 they look like mere specks in the heavens. Revolting creatures 

 are vultures ! Some years ago when the writer was visiting the 



