232 GLIMPSES OF INDIAN BIRDS 



As it has not been my good fortune to spend any 

 time in Kashmir, my acquaintance with the jackdaws 

 of India is confined to those that visit the Punjab 

 in winter. These do not appear to frequent the vicinity 

 of houses ; I have invariably found them feeding 

 in fields at some distance from a village. They roost, 

 along with the crows and the rooks, in remote parts 

 of the country. Every evening during the half-hour 

 before sunset two great streams of birds pass over 

 Lahore. The larger stream, consisting of crows, 

 rooks, and daws, moves in a north-westerly direction, 

 while the other, composed exclusively of ravens, 

 takes a more westerly course. The ravens apparently 

 decline to consort with their smaller and more frivolous 

 relations. 



Although jackdaws seem never to remain in the 

 plains after the beginning of spring, they are able 

 to thrive well enough in the hot weather. A specimen 

 in the Zoological Gardens at Lahore keeps perfectly 

 well, and loses none of his high spirits even when the 

 heat is, to use the words of Kipling, " enough to make 

 your bloomin' eyebrows crawl." But then, as Bishop 

 Stanley asked, ** who ever saw or heard of a moping, 

 melancholy jackdaw ? " This particular bird is able 

 to hold his own quite well against the crows, rooks, and 

 ravens confined in the same aviary. Moreover, all these 

 are on quite friendly terms with an Australian piping 

 crow — a butcher bird which apes the manners and 

 appearance of a crow so successfully as to delude 

 the Corvi into thinking that he is one of themselves ! 

 Half a century ago Jerdon wrote : " The jackdaw is 



