46 COMMON BIRDS OF AN INDIAN GARDEN 



punkahs are carefully wrapped up in paper and 

 stowed away for the winter beneath the roof of 

 the verandah, it is not long before the crows are 

 hard at work unpacking them and strewing the 

 floor with a litter of torn paper. If one leaves a 

 book lying in any place to which they can gain 

 access, one may surely reckon on finding pages torn 

 out of it within a very short time ; and, if one has 

 any particularly pet plant coming into bloom, they 

 are as likely as not to tear off the flowers as 

 quickly as they unfold. Any animal pets are, of 

 course, even more subject to their attentions, and, 

 unless in wholly inaccessible places, are constantly 

 liable to having their food purloined and their lives 

 rendered a burthen by persistent and ingenious 

 persecution. Most wild animals, too, have a bad 

 time wherever crows abound. As a rule, kites and 

 vultures are left in peace unless when a competi- 

 tion for food arises. Occasionally, however, after 

 the kites have begun to nest, and long before their 

 own building time has set in, a party of crows will 

 be suddenly smitten by a sense of the possibilities 

 of sport to be derived from interference with their 

 neighbours, and will assemble to criticise and some- 

 times even to intervene actively in the work of 

 building. Even king-crows, Dicrurince, in spite of 

 the respect that their pluck and dash usually inspire, 

 occasionally come in for a share of annoyance. I 

 once saw a party of crows in the Valley of Nipal 



