184 COMMON BIRDS OF AN INDIAN GARDEN 



whirling and sweeping around in myriads. They 

 are the only true shrikes that are habitual residents 

 of Calcutta, but Lanius nigriceps occurs so abun- 

 dantly in winter in the Sundarbans that stray 

 specimens must almost certainly now and then 

 visit the gardens of the suburbs. 



The large cuckoo-shrike, Graucalus macii, 1 is not 

 uncommon, especially during the latter part of 

 winter, generally making its appearance in pairs 

 that work their way methodically about over trees, 

 prying carefully under the leaves, and passing from 

 one hunting-ground to another with leaping flight 

 and shrill cries. Now and then, too, a garden will 

 be temporarily adorned by specimens of the large 

 scarlet minivet, Pericrocotus speciosus, 2 but these are 

 not at all common, and when they do occur it is 

 almost always in the form of solitary males or 

 females, and never in the large parties that are so 

 often to be met with in other parts of India. The 

 males especially are truly splendid objects ; and the 

 picture presented by one of them in the hills, seated 

 on the top of a tree on a steep slope, with all the 

 glowing scarlet of his plumage projected against 

 wreaths of snowy white mist steaming up from 

 the depths of the gorge below, is one that cannot 

 easily be forgotten. 



It is grievous to think that in England any rare 



1 It is rather larger than the great grey shrike of Europe. 



2 This hird is nearly of the same size as a song-thrush. 



