20 COMMON BIRDS OF AN INDIAN GARDEN 



small birds native to Calcutta in mature and healthy 

 condition, but any conspicuously foreign one, such 

 as a canaiy, is almost at once carried off. They 

 have many interesting habits. When bathing, which 

 they are very fond of doing (and with ample reason, 

 considering the nature of so much of their normal 

 diet and the places from which it is obtained), they 

 do their washing quite quietly and without any of 

 the noisy splashings and fluttering^ that attend that 

 of most other birds. When conducting it in a pond 

 they alight near the margin of the water, wade 

 leisurely in, and squat down so as to soak their 

 plumage ; when utilising a heavy downpour of rain, 

 they do not dash and plunge about among wet foliage 

 as crows and other birds usually do in like circum- 

 stances, but sit quietly down with their heads turned 

 to one side, and their wings widely extended so as 

 to expose as much surface as possible to the shower- 

 bath. After a bath, and also during cold weather, 

 they, like vultures and adjutants, have a way of 

 sunning themselves with widely extended wings, 

 and, specially in the rainy season, may often be seen 

 on the cornices of houses, spread out and flattened 

 against the wall like architectural ornaments. 

 Jerdon, in referring to the habit, says that Buchanan 

 Hamilton remarks that they then appear " exactly 

 as represented in Egyptian monuments." This is 

 hardly a correct statement, seeing that the birds 

 with extended wings on the monuments are vultures 



