WEAVER-BIRDS, SHRIKES, ETC. 187 



sometimes be seen soon after the nesting season, 

 that they fill the air " with their sweet jargoning." 

 The solitary birds occasionally seem to be soured 

 by the want of companionship, and travel round 

 hustling other birds and knocking them off their 

 perches out of gratuitous ill-temper conduct of 

 which paired birds are never guilty. In addition 

 to the manifold modifications of their regular 

 melodious calls, they sometimes utter harshly caw- 

 ing notes, and the young birds for a time indulge 

 in churring cries somewhat like those of starlings. 

 Orioles, as a rule, do not stand captivity well, for, 

 though strangely tame when first taken, and usually 

 ready to feed from the hand, they seldom survive 

 for any length of time after being caged, probably 

 owing to want of sufficient variety in their food, 

 which, under natural conditions, is of a very varied 

 character. The maroon oriole, Oriolus traillii, seems 

 to be an exception to this rule, as on several 

 occasions specimens of it have remained in excellent 

 health for a long time in the aviaries of the Zoo- 

 logical Garden at Alipur. 



In all well-wooded gardens those Ishmaelites, 

 the common tree-pies, Dendrocitta rufa, 1 are for 

 ever wandering around in search of what they can 

 devour, and calling to one another in a wonderful 

 variety of notes. The commonest and most 

 melodious of these consists of the three syllables 



1 They are nearly of the same size as a common English magpie. 



