92 COMMON BIRDS OF AN INDIAN GARDEN 



Otocompsas. common bulbuls usually go about in 

 pairs, who come leaping along through the air, and, 

 as they alight, call aloud cheerfully, " hickory dickory 

 dock." They are not at such pains to hide their 

 nests as Otocompsas are, and are very catholic 

 in their choice of sites, sometimes taking one quite 

 near the ground in a shrub, and at others preferring 

 a place high aloft in some great tree. They have 

 a great liking for spider-web as a means of imparting 

 cohesion to their otherwise rather loosely built nests, 

 and, where the needles of Casuarinas abound, nests 

 are often almost entirely composed of them bound 

 together by strands of web. In consequence of 

 this, during the nesting season any trees containing 

 spiders' webs, and especially the great, globular 

 edifices of social spiders, are constantly visited and 

 plundered. Although they are ordinarily very tame 

 and familiar, they have a strong objection to being 

 watched whilst building, and the only means of 

 successfully following the details of the process is 

 to remain at some distance from the site of their 

 labours and make use of a good field-glass. They 

 resent any close approach to their nests by torrents 

 of chattering outcries that are strangely like those 

 uttered by the common brown shrikes every morning 

 and evening. The young birds, for some time after 

 they leave the nest, can be readily distinguished 

 from mature ones by the rusty tint of their plumage, 

 and by their foolish, fussy way of getting up 



