16 COMMON BIRDS OF AN INDIAN GARDEN 



seen as the great brown birds chase one another 

 about and try to obtain a good chance of an efficient 

 stroke. When one of them realises that he has 

 been taken at advantage he suddenly turns com- 

 pletely over in the air so as to present a fiercely up- 

 turned beak and cruel talons to his adversary in 

 place of the broad, defenceless back that was aimed 

 at by the latter. Even when mobbed by other birds 

 they seldom show any active resentment, and 

 generally move quietly off when the annoyance 

 becomes no longer endurable. They are not, how- 

 ever, always so patient. I once had the joy of 

 seeing one at Delhi, who was inoffensively and 

 quietly sitting on a water- spout projecting from the 

 face of the town wall over the Jamna, entirely lose 

 his temper under the ceaseless persecution to which 

 he was subjected by a noisy troop of green parrots, 

 and, dashing out suddenly among them, strike off 

 the tail of one of his tormentors. No one who has 

 ever lived in a parrot-infested place could have failed 

 to sympathise with him and to enjoy the sight of 

 the drunkenly wobbling flight of the tailless and 

 shrieking victim of his wrath. 



During the nesting season their temper alters 

 for the worse, and they become very irritable, often 

 indulging in wholly unprovoked assaults on one 

 another, on other birds, and even, sometimes, on 

 human beings who may unwarily approach their 

 habitations too closely. An old hen-kite, who had 



