AT THE SIGN OF THE FARASH 75 



so industrious as the coppersmith, for it usually selects 

 for the site of its abode a part of the tree that is more 

 or less hollow, and proceeds, by means of its pick-hke 

 beak, to cut out a neat round passage or tube leading 

 to the ready-made cavity. 



The most flashy of the habitues of the hotel is the 

 Indian roller (Coracias indica), or " blue jay," as he is 

 more commonly called. Like " loud " human beings, 

 the roller bird is excessively noisy. When there are 

 both green parrots and blue jays in the hotel it becomes 

 a veritable bear-garden, resembling the hotels in 

 Douglas, a town of the Isle of Man. During the summer 

 months these are filled with hoHday-makers from the 

 Lancashire mills, who seem to spend the greater part 

 of the night in playing hide-and-seek, hunt the shpper, 

 " chase me," and such-hke delectable games in the 

 corridors and pubhc rooms. There is, however, this 

 difference between the rowdiness of the Lancashire 

 *' tripper " and that of the parrots and ''jays "—the 

 former is chiefly nocturnal, whereas the latter is 

 strictly diurnal. The blue jays indulge in their screech- 

 ings and* caterwaulings, their aerial gymnastics, their 

 " tricks i' the air," only during the hours of dayhght. 

 Not that the hotel is quiet at night. Far from it. The 

 spotted owlets take care of that. The blue jay is 

 not particular as to the nature of his accommodation ; 

 any kind of hole is accepted, provided it be fairly 

 roomy. He is quite content with a depression in the 

 broken stump of an upright bough. Sometimes the 

 bird places in its quarters a Httle furniture, in the shape 

 of a lining of feathers, grass, and paper. More often 



