THE DHAYAL 31 



little more insect-food is necessary in order 

 to keep it in health. This discourages many 

 people from caging it. Apart from this ques- 

 tion of its insect -food, there are good o-rounds 

 for leaving it at liherty. The bird is so much 

 attached to the vicinities of human habita- 

 tion that it seems not to be a gain to deprive 

 it of its freedom. The growth of civiliza- 

 tion with the concomitants of modern 

 town-planning is working such a havoc on 

 bird-life that even many of the commonest 

 birds have chosen to leave our company for 

 ever. It is not advisable, therefore, to make 

 life unbearable even for those few that still 

 adhere to us. In Beno^al such a laro^e num- 

 ber of nestlings of this bird is caught during 

 the nesting season that the law meant to 

 prevent it by declaring the season a closed 

 period for bird-catchers utterly fails in its 

 object. One effect of this indiscriminate 

 Capture is that in Calcutta what was once a 

 familiar garden-bird a few years back is now 

 a vara avis. 



It is not very difficult to get the DLayal 



