XVIII 

 A BIRD OF MANY ALIASES 



THE paddy bird has as many aliases as a 

 professional criminal of twenty years' stand- 

 ing. I do not refer to his scientific names. 

 Of course he has a number of these. Every 

 bird has. A person who desires violent exercise for the 

 memory cannot do better than try to keep pace with 

 the kaleidoscopic changes which Indian ornithological 

 terminology undergoes. The paddy bird is now known 

 as Ardeola grayii, but I do not guarantee that he will 

 be so called next month. When I assert that the paddy 

 bird is a creature of many aliases, I mean that he has 

 a number of popular names. He is sometimes known 

 as the pond heron, because no piece of water larger 

 than a puddle is too small to serve as a fishing ground 

 for him. His partiality to flooded rice fields has given 

 rise to the name by which he most commonly goes. 

 He is frequently dubbed the blind heron, especially 

 by natives. The Tamils call him the blind idiot. 

 Needless to say the bird is not blind, its confiding 

 disposition is responsible for the adjective. It might 

 be blind for all the notice it takes of surrounding 

 objects as it stands at the water's edge, huddled up 

 like a decrepit old man. 



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