PARROTS AND WOODPECKERS 217 



bungalow at Amritsar, in an attempt to recover 

 from the effects of a night of travel and fever that 

 was rendered futile by a parrot. For some reason 

 only known to itself, the bird had fallen in love 

 with a perch on the upper surface of one of the 

 beams supporting the roof of the verandah, and 

 there he squatted and carried on a ceaseless flow 

 of chuckling talk. Again and again I struggled 

 out of bed and expelled him by means of boots 

 and other handy missiles ; but all to no purpose ; 

 for, hardly had I lain down again and begun to 

 imagine that drowsiness was coming on at last, 

 when there he was once more in his place, and 

 " chuckle, chuckle, chuckle, chuckle, chuckle," began 

 again in maddening iteration. That bungalow was, 

 in those days, no place for an invalid, as, even in 

 the absence of parrots, it was haunted by a demoniac 

 cock with the most heart-rending voice, which he 

 was never tired of exercising for the benefit of 

 the public at all hours of day and night. 



Even apart from the annoyance that they cause 

 by their noisy shrieks, parrots are so destructive 

 and wantonly mischievous as to give good ground 

 for the dislike with which they are regarded in 

 their favourite haunts. It is quite maddening to 

 see the havoc that they play in fields and gardens. 

 When a large horde of them descend upon a field 

 of ripening jodr, the common large-headed millet, 

 the ravages that they commit by devouring the 



