Vll 



BABBLERS AND BULBULS 



" The nine brown sisters chattered in the thorn." 



The Light of Asia. 

 " The shrike chasing the bulbul." 



The Light of Asia. 

 " It were the bulbul ; but his throat, 

 Though mournful, pours not such a strain." 



The Bride of Abydos. 



BABBLERS so often act as the foster-parents of 

 cuckoos that there is some excuse for dealing with 

 them next in order to their nurslings, in spite of 

 the fact that they have no structural affinity to 

 them. There are surely very few birds less attractive 

 on first acquaintance than common Bengal babblers, 

 Crateropus canorus, 1 but the longer one knows them 

 the more one comes to appreciate their quaintly 

 diverting ways, and to realise that a garden devoid 

 of them would be wanting in a constant source of 

 entertainment. Fortunately they are to be met 

 with in all real gardens except those situated in 

 the very centre of large towns, and it is seldom 

 that the sound of their incessant and voluble con- 



1 It is about the same size as a blackbird. 



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