4 JUNGLE FOLK 



unconscious plagiarism. The majority of literary critics 

 in England have not enjoyed the advantage of meeting 

 our Indian birds in the flesh. To those who do possess 

 this advantage it is clear that the Indian birds them- 

 selves are responsible for our writings being " funny." 

 We naturalists merely describe what we see. The avi- 

 fauna of every country has a character of its own. Mr. 

 John Burroughs has remarked that American birds as a 

 whole are more gentle, more insipid than the feathered 

 folk in the British Isles. Still greater is the contrast 

 between EngHsh and Indian birds. The latter are to 

 the former as wine is to water. 



India is peculiarly rich in birds of character. It is 

 the happy hunting-ground of that unique fowl, Corvus 

 splendens — the splendid crow — splendid in sagacity, 

 resource, adaptiveness, boldness, cunning, and de- 

 pravity ; a Machiavelli, a Shakespeare among birds, a 

 super-bird. The king crow {Dicrurus ater) is another 

 superlative. He is the Black Prince of the bird king- 

 dom. He is the embodiment of pluck. The thing in 

 feathers of which he is afraid has yet to be evolved. 

 Like the mediaeval knight, he goes about seeking those 

 upon whom he can perform some small feat of arms. 



When we turn to consider the more outward char- 

 acteristics of birds, the peacock, the monal pheasant, 

 the " blue jay," the oriole, the white-breasted king- 

 fisher, the sunbird, the little green bee-eater, and a host 

 of others rise up before us. Of these some, showily 

 resplendent, compel attention and admiration ; others 

 of quieter hues possess a beauty which cannot be 

 appreciated unless they be held in the hand and each 



