222 COMMON BIRDS OF AN INDIAN GARDEN 



like the common green parrots, from a joy in tearing 

 them to pieces in wanton mischief, but as sources of 

 food from which they assiduously suck nectar without 

 doing any injury to the corollas. Like honey- 

 suckers, they have an especial love for the great 

 globular flower-heads of the kadam, Nauclea 

 kadumba. Their dependence on the juices of 

 flowers may be one reason why it is so often 

 difficult to keep them in good condition for any 

 length of time. Those who have had no experience 

 of the management of any save commonly caged 

 birds can have little idea of the difficulties and the 

 mortality that beset the upkeep of an aviary of 

 miscellaneous birds just removed from their natural 

 surroundings. It is quite clear that confinement 

 itself must be more trying to birds that have been 

 just caught than to those that have been born 

 and reared in captivity, and who, as that in itself 

 shows, either belong to species that are specially 

 adapted to cage-life, or are the progeny of individual 

 birds of such nature. But this is only one of the 

 difficulties met with. Many birds, such as the black- 

 headed oriole and the coppersmith barbet, seem to 

 take at once to life in a cage, and to be quite 

 contented with it from the moment that they are 

 imprisoned, but, in spite of this, it is very hard to 

 keep them in good condition for any length of 

 time. In the case of the coppersmiths, this, as 

 has already been pointed out, may be effected by 



