164 COMMON BIRDS OF AN INDIAN GARDEN 



varia 1 (Plate X.). Now and then a pair will come 

 in to hawk and hover over the ponds and fill the 

 air with their strange, piercing cries; but they are 

 essentially birds of the open country, and only 

 occasionally stray in from the broad reaches of 

 rice-fields in which they abound. They form a very 

 conspicuous feature in the ornithology of a railway- 

 journey through well-watered parts of the plains of 

 India, as they find attractive fishing-grounds in the 

 numerous water-holes at the sides of the embank- 

 ments, and convenient resting-places on the telegraph 

 wires and posts. 



Although so common in the channels of the 

 Sundarbans, the great brown-winged kingfisher, 

 Pelargopsis amauropterus, seems never to wander 

 into the immediate neighbourhood of Calcutta, 

 but another characteristically Sundarban species, 

 Sauropatis Moris, may sometimes be seen about 

 the ponds in the Botanic Garden. 



1 It is somewhat larger than a blaebird. 



