MAY. 



THIS is in all parts of India the most prolific season of the 

 year. Nearly thirty kinds of birds of prey are still breeding-, and 

 almost all the non-climbing- birds have commenced to lay. The shrikes, 

 the common drongo, the larg-e grey babbler, the doves, and the red 

 wattled plover are now breeding in all parts of the country. 



In the HIMALAYAS, the white scavenger vulture is still laying-. 

 The kestril, shikra, sparrow hawks, long-legged eag-les, hawk eagles, 

 serpent eagles, kites, wood owls, scops owls, owlets, mosque 

 swallows, frogmouths, goatsuckers, European bee eater, rollers, and 

 broadbills are laying. Most of the woodpeckers still have eggs, though 

 for them it is late. The Marshall's barbet begins laying, while the 

 other barbets still have eggs. The cuckoos, honey suckers, flower- 

 peckers, tree creepers, nuthatches, hoopoes, shrikes and drongos of 

 all kinds, flycatchers, wrens, shortwings, thrushes of all kinds, black- 

 birds, ouzels, wren babblers, laughing thrushes, barwings, bulbuls, 

 robing, bushchats, woodchats, water robins, reed warblers, tailor 

 birds, warblers of all kinds, golden -crested wrens, forktails, wagtails, 

 pipits, all the hill tits (Leiotrichina) ^ true tits, hedge sparrows, 

 crows, jays, magpies, starlings, mynahs, sparrows, buntings, gros- 

 beaks, skylarks, pigeons, doves, pheasants, grouse, partridges, quail, 

 plovers, woodcock, sandpipers, coots, bittern, herons, geese, ducks, 

 and grebe have all begun to lay : while the rosy minivet, the red-billed 

 wren warbler, the magpie sibia, the while-tailed ruby throat, the 

 paddy field warbler, strong-footed hill warbler, the golden-breasted 

 hill tit, Hodgson's munia, the white-capped bunting, the speckled 

 wood pigeon, Bullion's crake, the little bittern and the whiskered tern 

 have all begun to pair and build. 



In the PUNJAB, the red-headed merlins, the sand martin, the 

 Egyptian bee eater, the rose-headed paroquet, the speckled piculet, 

 the common bulbul, the magpie robins, the common bushchat, the 

 bright starling, the pied mynah, the pin-tailed munia, the desert 

 finch lark, the sand larks, the crested lark, the common sand- 

 grouse, the black partridge, the chukor, the seesee, the grey partridge, 

 the big bustard, the courier plover, the great stone plover, the stone 



