256 COMMON BIRDS OF AN INDIAN GARDEN 



does not often visit gardens close to the town; for, 

 during the course of thirty years' observation in 

 many of them, I never met with a single specimen. 

 They are, however, often brought into the bazaars 

 for sale, and make most charming pets. One of 

 the most amusing birds that I ever came across was 

 a pitta, who for some time inhabited one of my 

 aviaries. He made himself quite at home at once, 

 and almost immediately began to bully an inoffensive 

 Geocichla, who inhabited the same enclosure. He 

 was a very lively bird, constantly racing about from 

 one place to another in a series of high leaps, and 

 then pausing for a minute or two, very erect on 

 his long legs, to take a keenly considerative look 

 around. He was very silent, and never left the 

 ground except when the keeper entered to clean 

 the aviary. His only fault lay in his highly car- 

 nivorous tastes which sometimes led him to slay 

 and eat some of his smaller fellow-prisoners. His 

 pluck was wonderful. When a riding- whip or stick 

 was thrust through the wiring towards him, in place 

 of showing any signs of alarm, he would at once 

 go for it, seizing the end of it with his beak, wrench- 

 ing violently at it, and spreading his painted wings 

 widely abroad. 



Although none of the other Indian munias are 

 so daintily beautiful as the green and the red species 

 that are so familiar as cage-birds, they are all most 

 attractive little birds, and form welcome features 



