172 PASSERES. MUSCTCAPAD^. 



gossamer, from one tree to another. When he 

 descends to pick an insect from the surface of 

 the water, his downward course is as if he were 

 tumbling, and when he rises in a line upward, 

 he ascends with a curious lift of the wings, as if 

 he were thrown up in the air, and were endeavour- 

 ing to recover himself from the impetus. 



" The congregated flocks disappear entirely before 

 the month of October is out. It is only in some 

 five or six weeks of the year that they are recon- 

 ciled to association in communities. At all other 

 times they restrict their company to their mates, 

 and permit no other bird to divide with them 

 their solitary trees. 



" From the window of the room in which I am 

 writing, I look out upon a very lofty cocoa-nut 

 tree, in the possession of a pair of Petcharies. 

 Long before the voice of any other bird is heard 

 in the morning, even when daylight is but faintly 

 gleaming, the shrill unvarying cry of these birds is 

 reiterated from their aerie on the tree-top. Perched 

 on this vantage-height, they scream defiance to every 

 inhabitant around them, and sally forth to wage 

 war on all the birds that venture near. None but 

 the Swallow dares to take the circuit of their 

 nestling tree. At a signal from one of the birds, 

 perhaps the female, when a Carrion Vulture is 

 sweeping near, or a Hawk is approaching, the mate 

 flings himself upwards in the air, and having gained 

 an elevation equal to that of the bird he intends 

 to attack, he starts off" in a horizontal line, with 

 nicely balanced wings, and hovering for a moment, 



