230 JUNGLE FOLK 



Their mode of progression when not on the wing is by 

 a series of hops. Their movements are very Hke those 

 of a thrush on an EngHsh lawn — a dash forward for 

 about a yard, followed by an abrupt halt. They seem 

 to subsist chiefly on insects, but grain does not come 

 amiss to them. In places where they abound, several 

 of them are usually to be seen in every field of large 

 millet, each perched at the summit of a stalk eagerly 

 devouring the ripening grain. When thus occupied 

 they sometimes forget to call. They are birds of 

 peculiarly feeble flight. Their tail is long and their 

 wings are somewhat sketchy, and the result is that they 

 have to flutter these latter frantically in order to fly 

 at all. But for the fact that they always keep together 

 in flocks, even at the nesting season, they would fall 

 easy victims to birds of prey. Thanks to their clannish- 

 ness and pluck, they appear to be tolerably immune 

 from attack. Jerdon says : *' If the Shikra sparrow- 

 hawk be thrown at them, they defend each other with 

 great courage, mobbing the hawk and endeavouring 

 to release the one she has seized." Only yesterday 

 I saw a party of about a dozen large grey babblers 

 attack and drive away a couple of black crows (Corvus 

 macrorhynchus) from a position which the latter had 

 taken up on the ground. The babblers advanced 

 slowly in a serried mass, while the corbies remained 

 motionless watching them. When the front rank of 

 the babbler posse had advanced to within a foot of the 

 crows a halt was called, and the adversaries contem- 

 plated one another in silence for a few seconds. Then 

 one of the babblers made a lunge at the corby, which 



