246 COMMON BIRDS OF AN INDIAN GARDEN 



fine specimen visited the small garden at the south 

 side of my house, and decorated an iron railing 

 only a few yards from the verandah by spending 

 the afternoon upon it. In and around the large 

 towns of Upper India, there are usually particular 

 places where one may count upon finding a pair of 

 peregrines established for the winter. One of these 

 favoured spots is the Taj Garden at Agra, and 

 another is the long range of municipal buildings 

 facing the enclosure of the railway terminus in 

 Delhi. In both places a small expenditure of 

 patience will almost certainly be rewarded by the 

 sight of the birds wheeling around aloft with shrill 

 cries, or coming down to take up picturesque 

 attitudes on the minars or cornices of the build- 

 ings. Like Pallas' sea-eagle, they occur in surpris- 

 ing numbers in the swamps of the lower Surma, 

 at the time when the arrival of other autumnal 

 immigrants furnishes them with an abundant supply 

 of prey. They form one of the characteristic 

 features in the endless levels of the marsh, as almost 

 every one of the long bamboo poles, that are set up 

 to mark the course of the stream when the whole 

 area is completely submerged, is tenanted by one 

 of them, who uses it as a watch-tower from which 

 to survey the surrounding morass, and its throng- 

 ing multitudes of ducks and waders. 



Shikras, Astur badius, are, of course, to be 

 found in the gardens of Calcutta at any time of 



