BIRDS NESTING IN INDIA. 
CHAP TER. of. 
INTRODUCTORY ; BREEDING SEASONS AND HINTS ON 
BIRDS’ NESTING. 
Birps’ nesting has gained in civilised countries a very evil reputation, 
in many cases unfortunately only too well deserved, by the wanton 
eruelty with which it is attended; and it must be stated clearly to 
begin with, that the publication of this book is not intended in any way 
to encourage the idle and foolish destruction of birds, nor to countenance 
the wholesale robbing of young and eggs from nests, which has brought 
the very name of birds’ nester into discredit, and has changed what 
should be, and is, if properly carried on, a healthy and instructive pursuit 
into a deserved reproach. 
That the collecting of birds’? eggs may be done without cruelty is 
not to be doubted by any one who has devoted time and thought to the 
question. Few birds attach any importance to fresh eggs, it is only as the 
process of incubation progresses, and the maternal instincts are developed, 
that any grave anxiety is shown by the parent birds when the eggs are 
approached ; even at this stage many birds will forsake the nest at once 
if the eggs are touched ; and when the eggs are quite fresh, the simple 
fact of the nest being touched, or even the detection by the parent bird 
that the nest has been discovered, is sometimes enough to lead to its 
desertion: in such cases the taking of the eggs is clearly not followed 
hy any distress to the parent birds. Not many years ago I used to feel 
very much more strongly on this point than I do now; the pain at robbing 
a nest used quite to embitter the joy of discovering a prize ; but it happened 
on one occasion, during a march through the Bolandshahr district, that 
A 
