86 COMMON BIRDS OF AN INDIAN GARDEN 



food that call for dissection. They are so singularly 

 inconspicuous in their plumage so accurately 

 " dirt "-coloured that, could they only make up 

 their minds to give up talking, they might readily 

 escape notice among the surroundings that they 

 specially haunt. But this they can by no means 

 do, and, save when temporarily hushed by the 

 excess of midday heat in summer, they ceaselessly 

 gabble from dawn to dusk. Even after they have 

 retired for the night and are roosting on a horizontal 

 branch in a closely huddled row, it is long before 

 they fairly settle down and low-toned drowsy talk 

 ceases. 



They are by no means timid birds, and are 

 possessed by a spirit of curiosity that almost always 

 urges them to examine and discuss any strange 

 visitor who may enter their domain. Should a cat 

 or dog come strolling by, they hurry up to have a 

 look at it, coming quite close and low down in 

 the shrubs in their anxiety to get a good view 

 of it. Pure curiosity seems to determine their 

 behaviour in such cases, as they very rarely show 

 any signs of desiring to mob or annoy their visitors 

 except during the nesting season, when they become 

 very aggressive to hawks, king-crows, and cuckoos. 

 When suddenly alarmed they often flutter off, 

 uttering a series of shrill outcries very unlike their 

 common notes. During April and May they cease 

 to go about in parties, and pairs of them are every- 



