THK ROBINS AND CHATS. 99 



Everybody knows the Indian Robin. In March or 

 April it makes its nest in a niche in a wall, or in some 

 recess in a pile of stones, never very far above the 

 ground ; and there it lays three dingy looking eggs, 

 of a greenish white colour, speckled with brown. 

 You will not find the nest very easily, for the Robin 

 is cunning, like all birds that build near the ground, 

 and will not come or go in sight of an enemy. And 

 in that connection man is an enemy. 



A larger and more imposing bird is the Magpie 

 Robin (Copsychus saularis}, which is also black, 

 glossy blue-black, on the upper parts, but from the 

 breast downwards pure white. There is a broad 

 white band across the wing and two-thirds of the tail 

 is white. In short, it is coloured very like a magpie. 

 The female is like the male, except that the shade of 

 black is duller and runs to a smokey gray on the 

 throat and breast. Thfs bird is like the common 

 Indian Robin in all its ways, except that, though it 

 feeds on the ground, it perches on trees and is parti- 

 cularly fond of cool shady gardens. For this reason 

 it is a better known bird in Bombay than the common 

 Robin, though not nearly so familiar in the Deccan. 

 With the exception of one bird, which haunts the 

 deep forests of the ghauts, the Magpie Robin is the 

 finest songster that we have in Western India. In 

 March and April, when the Thrush and Blackbird 

 are singing to our friends as they lie in their beds, 

 the Magpie Robin at the same hour is pouring 

 forth a continuous torrent of far-reaching song 

 from the top of some palm or old mango tree. 

 And we scarcely say, "Thank you." Whether it 

 is that we leave our ears at home when we come out 



