38 GLIMPSES OF INDIAN BIRDS 



breeze be blowing. The sky presents a panorama of 

 clouds of the most varied and fantastic shapes, to 

 which the setting sun imparts hues wonderful and 

 beautiful. The slanting rays are reflected and re- 

 fracted from cloud to cloud, so that not infrequently 

 there appear to be two suns behind the clouds, a major 

 one setting in the west and a minor one sinking to 

 the eastern horizon. The earth below is very beauti- 

 ful. It is clothed in a mantle of green of every hue, 

 from the vivid emerald of the young rice crop to the 

 dark bluish green of the pipal tree. As likely as not 

 the jhil is so thickly studded with grasses and other 

 aquatic plants as to present the appearance, from a 

 little distance, of a number of flooded fields, in most 

 of which are well-grown crops — the water being visible 

 only in patches here and there. 



The most conspicuous of the occupants of the jhil 

 are the snow-white egrets (Herodias alba). These 

 birds, which attain a length of a yard, strut about 

 solemnly in the shallower parts of the lake, seeking 

 their quarry. Their long necks project high above the 

 vegetation ; so slender are these that they might 

 almost belong to swans. Here and there stands 

 motionless a " long-necked heron, dread of nimble 

 eels " (Ardea cinerea), waiting patiently until a luck- 

 less frog shall approach. The grey plumage of this 

 species, dull and sober though it be, stands out in 

 bold contrast to the surrounding greenery. In another 

 part of the jhil a couple of sarus cranes {Grus antigone) 

 are visible. This is the only species of crane resident 

 in India ; the others are to be numbered among those 



