260 A NATURALIST IN HIMALAYA 



more important than those connected with the pro- 

 curing of the daily food, so that it is interesting to see 

 those instincts so variable in their action. I have at 

 different times observed mynas, creepers, sparrows, 

 kites, owls, crows and gulls all chasing insects through 

 the air, hoopoes and titmice climbing like woodpeckers 

 up the tree-trunks ; but I had never before seen a 

 species with instincts so variable as to resemble the 

 peculiar instincts of three distinct families of birds. 



This plasticity of instinct in birds is common. Even 

 the ubiquitous house sparrow once provided me with 

 an interesting display. I watched it first acting like 

 a creeper in clinging to a tree-trunk and scrambling 

 about in search of insects. Then it would change its 

 methods. It would flutter out a little from the trunk, 

 vibrate rapidly its wings so as to frighten the dull- 

 coloured moths and other insects from the crevices 

 in the bark. Then it would dart on them like a fly- 

 catcher as they flew out into the air. In nature all 

 instincts vary, and the closer we observe the habits of 

 animals the easier it is to understand how one species 

 might in time lose completely its natural instincts and 

 adopt those of another species. 



Another act in the mode of feeding of the bulbul 

 somewhat surprised me. The birds used to congregate 

 in winter on the branches of the Persian lilac, Melia 

 azedarach, to feed on its nutritious berries. The birds 

 usually pick these berries to pieces ; sometimes, as I 

 have mentioned, they will hammer them to fragments 

 like a nuthatch, and, even at times, swallow them 

 whole. Now these berries are from one and a half 

 to two inches in circumference, an enormous bulk for 

 these little birds to swallow. Yet the bulbuls after 



