8 JUNGLE FOLK 



own in any company. If the shama, the magpie-robin, 

 the fan-tailed fly-catcher, the white-eye, the purple 

 sunbird, the orange-headed ground thrush, and the 

 bhimraj visited England in the summer, they would 

 soon supplant in popular favour some of our British 

 song-birds. 



Another feature of the Indian avifauna is its richness 

 in species. Gates and Blanford describe over sixteen 

 hundred of these. To the non-ornithological reader 

 this may not convey much. He will probably obtain 

 a better idea of the wealth of the Indian avifauna when 

 he hears that among Indian birds there are numbered 

 io8 different kinds of warbler, 56 woodpeckers, 30 

 cuckoos, 28 starlings, 17 butcher-birds, 16 kingfishers, 

 and 8 crows. The wealth of the fauna is partly ac- 

 counted for by the fact that India lies in two of the 

 great divisions of the ornithological world. The 

 Himalayas form part of the Palsearctic region, while 

 the plains are included in the Oriental region. 



Finally, Indian birds generally are characterised by 

 their fearlessness of man. It is therefore comparatively 

 easy to study their habits. I can count no fewer than 

 twenty different species which, during past nesting 

 seasons, have elected to share with me the bungalow 

 that I happened to occupy. Is it then surprising that 

 an unbounded enthusiasm should pervade the writings 

 of all Indian naturalists, that these should constantly 

 bubble over with humour ? The materials on which 

 we work are superior to those vouchsafed to the 

 ornithologists of other countries. Our writings must, 

 therefore, other things being equal, excel theirs. 



