42 COMMON BIRDS OF AN INDIAN GARDEN 



offices of the town and their nights in the suburbs 

 and the outlying villages beyond. 



There are several reasons why so large a number 

 of crows should be found at night within town limits. 

 In the first place, crows must always, owing to the 

 nature of their diet, find areas thickly peopled by 

 human beings convenient hunting-grounds. They 

 need not necessarily be permanent residents there ; 

 but wherever trees of a suitable kind are found in 

 the streets and gardens of a town, they will naturally 

 offer special attractions as sites for roosting and 

 nesting, because of the restrictions regarding the use 

 of firearms and the relative security from birds and 

 beasts of prey within urban limits. An abundant 

 supply of food and relative security will, therefore, 

 account for the presence of a certain number of 

 crows as permanent residents, but the chief cause of 

 the excessive number of the population is the per- 

 sistent habit that the birds have of returning to 

 roost and nest in the immediate neighbourhood of 

 the sites in which they were born. It is, however, 

 this very habit, annoying as it is to the occupants 

 of neighbouring houses, that provides an effective 

 means of largely mitigating the evil. Every garden, 

 and to a certain extent every tree, constitutes a 

 separate parish, and is inhabited by a distinct com- 

 munity, which is being constantly recruited by the 

 birth of young natives ; but only exceptionally by the 

 arrival of immigrants from other and overcrowded 



