THE INDIAN REDSTART i6i 



How great, then, is his joy when one day he notices a 

 suspicion of coolness in the air. Day by day this cool- 

 ness grows more appreciable, so that by late September 

 or early October to take an early-morning stroll be- 

 comes a pleasure. Then the sky is bluer, the atmo- 

 sphere is clearer, the foliage is greener than at any other 

 time of the year. Then at eventide the village smoke 

 hangs low, looking like a thin blue semi-transparent 

 cloud resting lightly on the earth — a sure sign of the 

 approaching cold weather. Then, too, the winter 

 birds begin to appear. 



Even as the cuckoo is welcomed in England as the 

 harbinger of the sweet spring, so in Northern India 

 is the redstart looked for as the herald of the glorious 

 cold weather. Within a week of the first sight of that 

 sprightly little bird will come the day when punkahs 

 cease to be a necessity. Last year (1907) the hot 

 weather lingered long, and the redstarts were late in 

 coming. It was not until the 27th September that I 

 observed one at Lahore. 



Several species of redstart are found within Indian 

 limits, but only one of them haunts the plains, and so 

 thoroughly deserves the name of the Indian redstart 

 {Ruticilla mfiventris). This species visits India in 

 hundreds of thousands from September to April. 



I have observed it in the city of Madras, but so far 

 south as that it is not common, being a mere straggler 

 to those parts. In the Punjab and the United Pro- 

 vinces, however, it is exceedingly numerous. Through- 

 out the cold weather at least one pair take up their 

 abode in every compound, 



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