1890-91.] in tJie Central Himalayas. 405 



bad name, and his best friend could not say much in his 

 favour, supposing he ever had a friend, which I do not sup- 

 pose is possible. ... A greedy, cowardly, destructive crea- 

 ture, with an ugly look and a hateful voice." Such is a Brit- 

 ish naturalist's opinion of crows. In India it is very different. 

 To a native the crow is the type of moral excellence, as the 

 cUckoo is of selfishness. The crow is the anydbhrit, the 

 nourisher of others ; the cuckoo is the anycibliritus, the para- 

 site, the mean accepter of other people's charity. The crow is 

 also the type of propriety, decency, morality, and religion. 

 The Persian poet Sadi, writing on the misery which the good 

 experience when compelled to associate with the wicked, de- 

 scribes it under the image of a crow shut up in the same cage 

 with a parrot. The crow exclaims : " It is bad enough for a 

 holy man to be in prison, but it is worse to be in the same 

 cell with a parrot. Would that I were back on a garden 

 wall, where I could talk seriously with some reverend brother 

 dressed like myself in black, instead of having to listen to the 

 silly prattling of this green-mantled fop ! " 



A beautiful group of Kumaon birds is the sun-birds, some- 

 times erroneously called humming-birds ; but they have strong 

 feet, and are modified passerine birds, not modified swifts. 

 The most common is the purple honeysucker, with a red-and- 

 yellow epaulette. Next come the creepers. The Certhia 

 himalayana, one of them, is, I think, the most common bird 

 in Almora. Not so common, but pretty abundant, is the 

 Tichodroma muraria, which looks more like a butterfly than a 

 bird. The hoopoe is a common bird in Kumaon. It is ven- 

 erated by Mohammedans on account of its having been the 

 messenger of Solomon ; but it is rather dirty in its habits, as 

 it spends most of its time searching for beetles and grubs 

 among cow-dung. Of fly-catchers, the most common and 

 most beautiful is the Paradise fly-catcher. The adults are 

 pure white, with two very long tail-feathers. The young 

 birds are black and chestnut. Not very common, though 

 figured by Pioyle, is the "now -rang" or nine-coloured bird 

 {Pitta hcngalensis). This bird is not only conspicuous by its 

 beauty ; it has also a very well-marked cry, saying distinctly, 

 " Ayittam, ayittam " — " My dress, my dress." It seems that 

 it formerly had a fine train, as well as a pretty bodice, but 



