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Althea R. Sherman,



Of three species that were seen in great abundance almost

everywhere it is difficult to say which were found most plentiful.

All were more numerous in the cities than in the country. The

Indian House Crow (Corvus splendens) was not seen on Mount Abu,

and the Common Pariah Kites (Milvus govinda ) were not numerous

there. The Common Myna (Acridotheres tristis ) was not seen in

Bombay, although it is said to he a resident. Without appearing to

exaggerate it is not easy to give an adequate idea of the very great

abundance of these species. Nineteen Indian House Crows standing

on a plot of ground no more than ten feet square in a Calcutta park

were thought exceedingly plentiful, hut afterwards they were seen

in greater numbers. Looking up a narrow street the air above it

seemed full of the Common Kites, one hundred or more of them

being in sight; and of the Common Mynas, flocks of twenty or

thirty appeared ready to fly up from one’s path almost everywhere.


Especially well named is the Indian House Crow, a bird that

belongs to the Crow family, found in India most abundantly in the

neighbourhood of houses. It is comparatively fearless, and in its

search for scraps of food will walk with the boldness of a very

tame chicken among a group of natives who are eating. Neither

is it averse to coming to porch floors or perching under porch roofs.

Those who are intimately acquainted with this Crow tell us that

it will enter houses and eat food from the table, “ for there is no

right to which the Crows cling more tenaciously than the right to

be fed by the man whose compound they clean.” “ Black as

a crow ” is not applicable to this species, since grey is the

predominating colour, although the head and nape are black. It is

a very noisy bird, and all day long one’s ears are filled with its

tiresome cawing; how tiresome these sounds are is realized when

one is out of ear-shot of them. The failure to hear them on

Mount Abu was one thing that caused that place to be so attractive.

Their place was filled in a very slight measure by their cousin, the

Jungle Crow, or Indian Corby (Corvus macrorhynchus ).


The Common Kite, less hold than the House Crow in its

approaches to man, is by no means a timid bird. A lady in Delhi,

in relating to me her experiences with this species, said that once



