112 GLIMPSES OF INDIAN BIRDS 



opinion of the feathered folk. Some 300 or 400 mynas 

 also utilise this tree as a dormitory. The mynas 

 occupy the higher branches, and the paddy birds the 

 lower ones. 



As every one knows, the roosting place of a com- 

 pany of mynas is a perfect pandemonium. For thirty 

 or forty minutes before going to sleep each individual 

 bird shouts at every other individual with truly 

 splendid energy. If man could but devise some 

 means of harnessing this energy, every station in 

 India might be lighted with electric light at a very 

 small cost. As things are, all this energy is dissipated 

 in the form of sound, with the result that the noise 

 made by 300 starlings can be heard at a distance of 

 half a mile. 



One might reasonably suppose that a quiet, sedate 

 bird like Ardeola grayii would be greatly disgusted 

 at the din that emanates from the throats of mynas at 

 bedtime, and would refrain from selecting as his 

 dormitory a tree that literally quivers with the shout- 

 ings of mynas. It is, however, not so. Birds rarely 

 do what one would expect. I know hundreds of ideal 

 sites for birds' nests that are never utilised. Per 

 contra, I have met with numbers of nests situated in the 

 most uncomfortable and evil-smelling places. Paddy 

 birds obviously do not suffer from nerves. 



For about fifteen minutes before and fifteen minutes 

 after sunset the tree in which all these birds roost 

 presents an animated appearance. One or two paddy 

 birds are the first to arrive, and they settle on one 

 or other of the lower branches which almost touch the 



