134 



THE BIRDS OF CALCUTTA. 



light blue like hers. It is their difference from other birds 

 that makes herons so striking and interesting ; their 

 usually silent undemonstrative ways, stiff, persistent 

 attitudes, and the strange contrast of their bustle and 

 clamour where they congregate, make them attract 

 every one's attention wherever they are found. Also, 

 though far less graceful in form than many other water- 

 birds, they have the fatal gift of beauty in the form of 

 filmy feathers they bear on their backs as wedding gar- 

 ments ; which, in the trade, have somehow got the absurd 

 name of " ospreys." For these the poor birds are ruth- 

 lessly shot down, though this has not been done so much 

 in India as in America, where the valuable white-plumed 

 species have been terribly persecuted and most cruelly, 

 as they carry these plumes all the while they are rearing 

 young. It is fortunate for the Paddy-bird that he does 

 not bear plumage of the first quality, but still he 

 gets indented on to a certain extent. But under the Act 

 that has now been made about bird protection, he will 

 receive all the immunity he needs, for herons are easy 

 birds to legislate about, owing to their distinctness, 

 which makes them always distinguishable, and their 

 unanimity in the matter of places and season for breeding. 

 It is just possible, indeed, that protection may be over- 

 done in case of these fish-eating birds, though not very 

 likely, as they are themselves esteemed as food by some 

 natives. It seems, however, that the Buff-backed Egret 

 (Bubulcus coromandus), which forms so picturesque an 

 object in the landscape as he stalks by the dark buffaloes^ 

 is tabooed by certain fastidious Mussulmans, because he 



