224 JUNGLE FOLK 



an open question whether or not these clubs break up 

 at the breeding season, or whether the nesting birds 

 still continue to seek food in company. Colonel 

 Cunningham declares that during April and May 

 babblers ** cease to go about in parties, and pairs of 

 them are everywhere busily occupied in nesting." 

 Jerdon, on the other hand, states that the parties 

 persist throughout the breeding season. I feel sure that 

 Jerdon is right. No matter where one is stationed, 

 parties of babblers are to be seen at all seasons of the 

 year. From this, of course, it does not necessarily 

 follow that the nesting birds do not forsake their 

 brethren, at any rate for a time. It is probable, nay 

 certain, that all the members of a flock do not pair and 

 nest simultaneously. The breeding season extends at 

 least from March to July. But the fact that there is 

 quite a baby bird in the babbler brotherhood that 

 dwells in the compound of the Allahabad Club seems 

 to indicate that the nesting birds continue to find their 

 food in company. There is no reason why they should 

 not, for babblers neither migrate nor wander far afield. 

 But the question arises : What happens to the young 

 birds when they are grown up ? If they attached 

 themselves to the existing flocks, these would tend to 

 increase in size, and sometimes, at any rate, we should 

 see an enormous assembly. So far as one's casual 

 observation goes, the flocks keep constant in number 

 throughout the year. It is, of course, quite possible 

 that casual observation leads one astray in this case. 

 Any person interested in the subject, who has a more 

 or less fixed abode, would do some service to orni- 



