232 COMMON BIRDS OF AN INDIAN GARDEN 



without sustaining vicious digs and knocks from 

 the beaks and wings of his predecessors. 



They are singularly ill-tempered birds, constantly 

 squabbling with one another even in the absence 

 of any cause of competition such as favourite roosts 

 or specially savoury stores of offal. Even whilst 

 several of them are standing quietly about, sunning 

 themselves and apparently buried in deep thought, 

 a quarrel will suddenly arise for no apparent reason ; 

 and then you may see two monstrous fowls begin 

 to pace around, cautiously stalking one another, 

 and watching for a favourable opportunity of striking 

 and buffeting with beak and wings. The expres- 

 sion of slow malignity with which such duellists 

 regard one another is gruesome, and the injuries 

 resulting from the fray are often ghastly, blinded 

 eyes and bloody cockscombs being matters of 

 everyday occurrence. 



Many of their attitudes are wonderfully grotesque, 

 and the appearance of a large party of them taking 

 their ease in the blazing sunshine of an open space 

 is often quaint beyond description (Plate XIII.). 

 Whilst resting they sometimes remain standing 

 rigidly erect on one leg, but very often they prefer 

 to sit down, stretching their long tarsi out in front, 

 and looking as though they were kneeling wrong 

 side foremost. They love to expose their great 

 wings as fully as possible to the rays of the sun, 

 and, especially during the intervals between heavy, 



