62 COMMON BIRDS OF AN INDIAN GARDEN 



calling aloud at intervals. In such circumstances 

 they generally say alternately, " Kah, kah, kah," and 

 " Keeah, keeah, keeah, kok," but sometimes the 

 last syllable of the second phrase is omitted. At 

 the same time, they perform a series of strange 

 gesticulations, depressing their heads, stretching 

 out and fluttering their wings, and extending their 

 necks to the utmost. As the sun gets higher their 

 talk is often interrupted by the need of dressing 

 their feathers, and a little later they take flight for 

 the day. When they have hit upon a good site 

 for this morning ceremony they return to it day 

 after day with wonderful regularity, and seem to 

 resent any intrusion upon it very highly. A party 

 of them used to frequent the tops of some of the 

 tall casuarinas near the superintendent's house in 

 the Botanic Garden at Shibpur, and one morning 

 when they arrived, one bird found his usual perch 

 occupied by a kite. In his indignation he first tried 

 to dislodge the intruder by a torrent of outcries, 

 and then, as this failed to produce any result, laid 

 a firm hold with his beak on the tip of the long 

 slender bough on which the kite was seated, and, 

 closing his wings, hung down, swinging in mid-air, 

 and bending the branch so abruptly that the kite, 

 in order to avoid being thrown off it, was fain to 

 take wing and leave the coveted perch to its right- 

 ful owner (Plate III.). 



