192 COMMON BIRDS OF AN INDIAN GARDEN 



in India are so constructed as to allow of birds of an 

 intrusive disposition asserting themselves in a way 

 that is unknown in European and specially in 

 Northern European regions. In the British Islands, 

 sparrows, however much they may abound and 

 appropriate outbuildings, very rarely venture to 

 invade the interior of inhabited houses, and, 

 when they do so, are usually a source of annoyance 

 rather on account of their terror and insensate 

 attempts at escape, than from any disposition to 

 maintain their ground. In India matters are very 

 different. The numerous doors and windows almost 

 always standing widely open afford easy ingress 

 and egress; and the large and lofty rooms, 

 with their heavy projecting cornices and open 

 roofs traversed by cross beams, at the ends of which 

 chinks and cavities abound, provide such store of 

 convenient hiding- and nesting-places that it would 

 be strange indeed were birds like sparrows not to avail 

 themselves of them. Take full advantage of them 

 they certainly do ; and on entering a house in which 

 they have been allowed to establish themselves, it 

 is only to find oneself regarded as a troublesome 

 intruder whose impertinence merits the noisiest 

 expression of resentment. In such cases it often 

 takes months of patient struggle to abate the 

 nuisance. The contention reaches its height when 

 the right of the lodgers to nest and rear young 

 families on the premises comes into question. 



