BULBULS' NESTS I 133 



was the cock and which the hen, I could distinguish 

 one individual from the other. For brevity I will 

 call them A and B, respectively. 



Both birds, before flying to the nest, used to alight 

 on the stem of a palm standing in the verandah. 

 From this point their manoeuvres differed. Individual 

 A invariably flew to a stout vertical branch of the 

 aralia, remained there for a second or two, flitted to a 

 second vertical branch, and from thence hopped on 

 to the edge of the nest, so that its face when there 

 pointed to the east. This individual always showed 

 itself the bolder spirit of the two. The other bird, B, 

 used to fly from the palm to a slender leafy branch of 

 the aralia, and thus cause considerable commotion 

 among the leaves ; from thence it jumped on to the 

 edge of the nest, where it perched with its face pointing 

 to the north. The modus operandi of A was the 

 superior. The verandah faces the east, so that when 

 A wished to leave the nest, it had but to jump across 

 it into the space beyond, and then wing its way ahead, 

 while B had to turn round before it could fly off. The 

 neatness and address with which A used to leap across 

 the nest into the air baffles description. 



The i6th July fell on a Sunday. I therefore deter- 

 mined to devote some hours to studying the ways of 

 those bulbuls at the nest. Every naturalist has his 

 own method of prying into the ways of the fowls of the 

 air or the beasts of the field. Some expose themselves 

 to the Indian sun at midday in May, others will squat 

 for hours in feverish swamps. People who do these 

 things are worthy of all praise. I prefer less heroic 



