162 COMMON BIRDS OF AN INDIAN GARDEN 



very soon learning to help itself to live fish in any 

 water that the aviary may contain. 



Whilst neither so abundant nor so generally 

 distributed in gardens as the species which have 

 just been described, and hardly ever venturing into 

 the town proper, the magnificent blue and buff 

 garial, Pelargopsis gurial, 1 are by no means rare 

 visitors of well-wooded suburban enclosures, and 

 may almost always be met with in considerable 

 numbers in the Botanic Garden at Shibpur. 

 There, at certain times of year, their character- 

 istic and ringing cries of " peer, peer, purr ; peer, 

 peer, peer, purr " are to be heard resounding through 

 the air all day long, and particularly during the early 

 morning. When about to call in this way, they 

 take up a conspicuous position on the top of a 

 tall tree, and remain there for some time, crying 

 aloud at brief intervals, but now and then they 

 utter the same notes feebly and imperfectly whilst 

 flying from one tree to another. Occasionally whilst 

 at rest, and much oftener when on the wing, they 

 utter another call sounding "kuk, kuh, kuh, ktih, 

 kuh, kuh, kuh," but they do not seem to have 

 any note exactly corresponding with the loudly 

 cackling alarm-cry of Halcyon smyrnensis. Their 

 flight is laboured, heavy, and ungainly, the body 

 and head being extended in a straight line, and 

 the wings in constant flapping movement as though 



1 It is a grand bird, about fifteen inches in length. 



