2i6 GLIMPSES OF INDIAN BIRDS 



garden. The cocks are white or chestnut, according 

 to age. The crested head is shining black, and the 

 two median tail feathers are greatly elongated, so 

 that they flutter in the air like satin streamers as 

 the bird flits about among the trees. The hen lacks 

 the lengthened tail feathers, and, as " Eha " says, looks 

 like a chestnut-coloured bulbul. Indeed, Anglo- 

 Indian boys call this species the Shah BulbuL 



There are a number of occasional bird visitors 

 to our Madras gardens. Parties of minivets and 

 cuckoo shrikes come and seek for insects among the 

 leaves of trees. The unobtrusive yellow-throated 

 sparrow [Gymnorhis flavicollis) is another tree-haunting 

 species to be looked for in the garden. Conspicuous 

 among the less common birds which feed on the ground 

 are the gorgeous roller or " blue jay," the sprightly 

 magpie robin, the white-throated munia, attired like 

 a quaker, and that bird of many colours the Indian 

 pitta, which keeps always near thick underwood, 

 sometimes issuing from thence into the open to give 

 forth a cheery whistle. 



In conclusion, mention must be made of the migrant 

 species. Many of the birds that come to the farm on 

 the downs of which Jefferies wrote — the swallows, 

 the cuckoos, and the wagtails — are but summer visitors 

 to England. So do a number of migrating species visit 

 our Madras gardens. There is, however, this difference 

 in the two cases. The migrating species visit England 

 in summer for nesting purposes, whereas they spend 

 the winter in w^arm Madras, and leave it in summer 

 before the nesting time begins. 



