196 PET BIRDS OF BENGAL 



sure of your intentions before moving out of 

 the range of your vision. 



It is completely innocent of social 

 instincts and never tolerates the presence of 

 any of its own tribe in its territory. Each 

 Kastura confines itself ^Yithin a certain area, 

 perhaps within a radius of two hundred 

 yards of a Jhora, Beyond this limit is 

 usually the domain of another member of the 

 same species. On no account will one trespass 

 into the realms of another. These birds 

 possess a method, unintelligible to man, of 

 determining the de-limitation of their terri- 

 torial boundaries. It is only occasionally that 

 a bird finds itself within the territories of its 

 neighbour. This happens more unconscious- 

 ly, and by inadvertence or mistake, than from 

 any aggressive spirit of conquest. Not that 

 it is afraid of legal proceedings, for instances 

 of breach of neutrality are punished more 

 swiftly and eflPectively, but it seems to follow 

 a natural instinct ; and therefore these 

 exclusive birds, living in adjacent territories, 

 rarely find themselves at logger-heads over 



