120 COMMON BIRDS OF AN INDIAN GARDEN 



forwards. In addition to such alarm-notes, they 

 have a churring cry that is usually repeated for some 

 time after they have retired for the night. Their 

 flight is of a peculiarly violent jerking nature ; and 

 with every successive impulse in it there is a brief 

 divergence of the snow-white feathers of the tail. 

 In the evening they are usually to be met with in 

 pairs on open spaces of grass, moving about in short 

 series of hops, and every now and then pausing for 

 a moment in order to pick an insect daintily up. 

 When so engaged they soon become very tame in 

 places where they are not molested, and will follow 

 one about very closely, seeming to take advantage 

 of the disturbance among lurking insects caused by 

 passing footsteps. Now and then one of them will 

 take to behaving exactly like a flycatcher, settling 

 on a projecting bough and making repeated fluttering 

 excursions to secure passing insects and return with 

 them to its perch. Like so many other common 

 Indian birds, they seem to continue to go about 

 in family parties for a good while after the young 

 ones of the past nesting season are well able to 

 take care of themselves, as they may be observed 

 in groups of three or four until quite far on in the 

 rainy season. The young birds, until after their 

 first moult, bear a general likeness to the mature 

 females ; but are greyer, have less defined markings, 

 and show a reddish brown tinge in their primary 

 wing-feathers. The Indian redstart, Ruticilla rujiven- 



