60 



PET BIRDS OF BENGAL 



It pursues and catches 

 several insects at a run 

 and returning with them 

 in its beak to a boulder, 

 a shrub, or a neigh- 

 bouring tree, as the case 

 may be, eats them leisure- 

 ly. Small shrubs, plants 

 like those of prickly pear 

 and wild berries or the 

 leafless Palas ( Butea 

 froudosa ) groves are 

 its fcwourite haunts. 

 In Behar and the 

 United Provinces, 

 it is truly a house- 

 hold bird, and like 



