XLI 

 THE YELLOW-EYED BABBLER 



THE babbler community embraces a most 

 heterogeneous collection of birds. Every 

 Asiatic fowl which does not seem to belong 

 to any other family is promptly relegated 

 to the Crateropodidae. Thus it comes to pass that such 

 dissimilar creatures as the laughing thrushes and the 

 seven sisters find themselves classed together. Now, 

 taken as a whole, the babbler class is characterised 

 neither by beauty nor melodiousness. The best-known 

 members are the widely distributed seven sisters, 

 which in many respects are very like those human 

 babblers who style themselves Labour Members of 

 Parliament. They are untidy in appearance and ex- 

 ceedingly nois}^ ; their voices are uncouth, and they 

 never tire of hearing themselves shout. They are apt 

 to meddle with affairs that do not concern them. Of 

 course the Sath Bhai have their good points ; so, I 

 suppose, have Labour M.P.'s — at any rate when they 

 are in their natural habitat. When they come to India 

 and then try to wield the pen — but it is not of human 

 babblers that I wish to write, nor of the plainly attired, 

 noisy, avian babblers, for have not the seven sisters 

 had a double innings already ? Even as some Labour 



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