4o6 A Description of Kiiinao?i, [Sess. 



the peacock stole its train. Why it speaks Cingalese, and not 

 Hindustani, I cannot say. Another common thrush is the 

 brown water-ousel {Hydrohata asiatica), which plunges into 

 water in search of water insects. I used to call it the curtsy- 

 ing bird, for it has a habit of sitting on a stone in the river, 

 and making a series of very pretty curtseys. I meiitioned 

 last year the yellow-billed whistling thrush {Myiopliomis Tcm- 

 menckii)} so shall say no more about it now. 



Of the Crateropod family, Malacocircus, one of the most 

 common birds in the plains, is rarely seen in Kvimaon. Here 

 the commonest Crateropod is the white-crested laughing thrush 

 {Garrulax Iciicolophus). It assembles in ilocks of twenty or 

 more, and receives the astonished visitor to its forest haunts 

 with roars of laughter which are extremely infectious, for one 

 can hardly help laughing one's self. Another common and 

 familiar Crateropod is the streaked laughing thrush (Trochal- 

 opteron lincatwm), which, however, does not laugh at all — at 

 least, I never heard it. Its note is like that of two pebbles 

 struck together. It often builds under the eaves of houses in 

 N"aini Tal. 



Of the short-legged thrushes, the most conspicuous is the 

 "guldum" {Otocompsa Iciicogenys) — a lovely bird, with bright yel- 

 low under its tail, which sings, " Speak to me, speak," the refrain 

 of a once well-known English ballad. Common, but not nearly 

 so common, is the green iora, which says " ioree " not " ior«," as 

 it should say, and has also for its note a double C — the low 

 C with its octave. Next come the joyous orioles. Of all 

 birds I know, these have, I think, the most exhilarating and 

 joyous cry. The note of the laughing thrush inclines you to 

 laugh ; the wail of the green pigeon almost makes you weep ; 

 but the cry of the oriole causes you to reck little of the steep 

 ascent before you. Every pedestrian in the Himalayas must 

 love the oriole. Of the warblers, the most conspicuous is an 

 aquatic form, the plumbeous water-robin or plumbeous red-tail, 

 which lives on the wet rocks in the streams, and passes a 

 great part of its life in fighting with a wagtail (Unicurus 

 Scoulcrii) which has similar habits. I have often sat watching 

 them at war. They are well matched, but the robin has 

 generally the best of it. The true wagtails, called by the 



1 See ante, p. 295 (Sess. 1889-90). 



