XXXVII 



BIRDS IN THE COTTON TREE 



LACK of green grass and the paucity of wild 

 flowers are the chief of the causes which 

 J render the scenery of the plains of India so 

 unlike that of the British Isles. India, not 

 being blessed with frequent showers, the sine qua non 

 of flower-decked, verdant meadows, has to be content 

 with a xerophilous flora. But there is in this country 

 some compensation for the lack of flowers of the field 

 in the shape of flowering shrubs and trees. Among the 

 most conspicuous of these is the cotton tree (Bombax 

 malaharicum) . This tree is not an evergreen. It loses 

 its leaves in winter, and before the new foliage appears 

 the flowers burst forth — these may be bright red 

 or golden yellow. As they are larger than a man's 

 fist, and appear while the branches are yet bare, a 

 cotton tree in flower is a very conspicuous and beau- 

 tiful object. But it is of the feathered folk that visit 

 this tree that I would write, not of the splendour of 

 its blossom. Even before the March sun has risen and 

 commenced to dispel the pleasant coolness of the night 

 the cotton tree is the scene of riot and revelry. Through- 

 out the morning hours, as the burning sun mounts 

 higher and higher in the hard blue sky, the revelry 



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