GLIMPSES OF 

 INDIAN BIRDS 



BIRDS IN A GROVE 



THE small groves that usually surround 

 hamlets in Oudh are favourite resorts of 

 birds. 

 I know of few more pleasant ways of 

 passing an hour than under the trees in such a grove 

 at the beginning of December, when the weather is 

 perfect. The number of birds that show themselves is 

 truly astonishing. 



Recently I tarried for a little time in such a grove 

 consisting of half a dozen mango trees, a tamarind 

 and a pipal, and witnessed there a veritable avian 

 pageant — a pageant accompanied by music. 



The sunbirds {Arachnechthra asiatica) were the 

 leading minstrels. There may have been a dozen of 

 them in the little tope. To count them was impossible, 

 because sunbirds are never still for two seconds 

 together. When not flitting about amid the foHage 

 looking for insects they are playing hide-and-seek, or 

 pouring out their canary-like song. At this season of 



