PADDY BIRDS AT BEDTIME 115 



paddy birds is of another kind. Each one is balancing 

 himself on an insecure perch and lives in momentary 

 terror of being displaced by the advent of some other 

 bagla. Hence, when the tree contains about forty 

 herons, every fresh arrival is greeted with croaks the 

 most sepulchral, and there is much shaking of branches 

 and flapping of wings before he can find a spot on 

 which he is able to maintain himself in a state of 

 unstable equilibrium. 



I watched the tree in question one evening in order 

 to ascertain how many paddy birds roosted in it. I 

 was able to count fifty-four by enumerating the birds 

 as they arrived. I may have missed a few. But this 

 is a mere detail. The lower branches carried all the 

 paddy birds they were capable of bearing with safety. 

 A few of the paddy birds had to be content with 

 berths in a neighbouring tree, which grew out of the 

 water at a distance of a few feet. 



Some time after the sun had set one of the over- 

 flow party decided to try his luck in the main tree, 

 and this resulted in such croaking and fluttering 

 of wings on the part of his fellow paddy birds that for 

 a few seconds the din of the mynas was drowned. 



By the time it is really dark every bird, be he 

 myna or pond heron, is sufficiently satisfied to hold 

 his tongue. From then until an hour before sunrise 

 not a sound emanates from the sleeping population 

 of some 400 mynas and 50 paddy birds, who have 

 elected to spend the night amid the unwholesome 

 vapours that emanate from the water below. Birds are 

 evidently mosquito proof. 



