THE BHIMRAJ 235 



treatment. It cannot stand cold at all, 

 and so, except in summer, artificial heat is 

 necessary to keep it warm. Reginald 

 Phillips prescribed for it the follow- 

 ing diet — ^'cockroaches, earwigs, chafers, 

 wood-lice, flies, beetles, grasshoppers, 

 grubs, almost any living creature. Naked 

 nestling canaries and sparrows would 

 form a valuable change, also baby mice 

 cut up would help. Mealworms are 

 indigestible. A grape or two may be 

 placed within the reach of the bird as 

 medicine." 



The Bhimraj is the finest and the 

 most sightly bird of the Drongo family. Its 



whole body including the bill, 

 Coloration feet, and claws, is clothed in 



sable, but the colour is not the 

 funeral black of II penseroso. Except 

 the throat, lower abdomen and vent, the 

 rest of the body is glossed with blue, 

 which shows brilliantly in sunshine. 

 Its forehead is tufted with feathers of 

 varying length, — the bird.^ of Northern 



