212 JUNGLE FOLK 



visiting of the silk-cotton tree by the corbies, namely, 

 that it comes into flower in March, which happens to 

 be the nesting season of those birds. 



The above seven species are, so far as my observation 

 goes, the only birds that make a habit of drinking at 

 the blossom of the cotton tree. It would thus appear 

 that the nectar has a very pronounced taste, and that, 

 in consequence, birds either like it intensely or posi- 

 tively dislike it. 



" Eha," I am aware, states that many other birds 

 frequent the cotton tree, for the sake of its good cheer, 

 " the king crow, and even the temperate bulbul and 

 demure coppersmith, and many another, and, here and 

 there, a palm squirrel, taking his drink with the rest 

 like a foreigner." But did not ** Eha " mistake the 

 purpose for which these creatures visit the silk-cotton 

 tree ? A bird may be present without taking part in 

 the revelry. The other day I was watching all the fun 

 at one of these trees when suddenly a little copper- 

 smith [Xantholcema hcematocephala) came and perched 

 on one of the bare spiny branches. He sat there 

 motionless, as out of place as a Quaker would among 

 a mob of bookmakers. Suddenly a rosy starling 

 hustled him off his perch. But the coppersmith did not 

 fly away ; he merely hopped on to another branch, and 

 then suddenly performed the vanishing trick. Had 

 I not been watching him very closely I could almost 

 have persuaded myself that he had melted into thin 

 air. As it was, I saw him dive into a round opening — 

 scarcely the size of a rupee — about two inches from the 

 broken end of a dead branch, not as thick as a woman's 



