I30 JUNGLE FOLK 



writes : *' It is occasionally, when there is abundance of 

 food about, a sociable species, as many as three or four 

 collecting on one tree, and carrying on a vigorous 

 warfare against the surrounding insect world." Like 

 the king crow, it is an early riser and a late rooster. 

 It is a great chaser of crows, and of any creature that 

 dares to intrude into the tree in which its nest is placed. 

 Needless to say that it detests owls. Says Legge : 

 " The white-bellied king crow never fails to collect all 

 the small birds in the vicinity whenever it discovers 

 one of these nocturnal offenders, chasing it through 

 the wood until it escapes into some thicket which 

 baffles the pursuit of its persecutors." But why does 

 he call owls " nocturnal offenders " ? Wherein lies 

 their offence ? So far as I can see, the only crime that 

 owls commit is in being owls. The creatures they prey 

 upon have reason for dishking them. But owls do not 

 attack ornithologists. Why, then, should these gentry 

 call them hard names ? 



The nesting habits of both the white-belhed and 

 the white-vented drongos are very similar to those 

 of the common king crow. Legge describes the 

 nest as a shallow cup, almost invariably built at 

 the horizontal fork of the branch of a large tree 

 at a considerable height from the ground, some- 

 times as much as forty feet. The eggs seem to vary as 

 greatly in appearance as do those of the common king 

 crow. 



Since the white-bellied drongo appears to be quite as 

 pugnacious as its black cousin, and to have almost 

 identical habits, it is strange that it should be so 



