INDIAN SONG-BIRDS 295 



plumage. Dame Nature is inclined to be parsimonious. 

 If she arrays a bird in very handsome clothes, she is 

 usually content to allow it but a poor song. In the 

 same way, most of the birds which are endowed with 

 sweet voices are plainly attired. She has, however, 

 been very generous to the oriole. She has lavished 

 upon it with no unsparing hand the most brilliant 

 yellow and golden tints to be found in her paint-box, 

 and, in addition, has taught the bird to utter a note 

 very agreeable to human ears. The mellow peeho^ 

 peehO) or loriot, loriot, as the French syllabize the 

 note, is perhaps the most pleasing of the sounds which 

 issue from the mango tope. 



The Malabar whistling thrush (Myiophonus horsfieldii), 

 commonly known as "the idle schoolboy," is one of the 

 most characteristic song-birds of Southern India. But 

 he does not visit Madras ; his haunts are " far from the 

 madding crowd." He is abundant on the West Coast. 

 I do not know what constitutes his eastern boundary, 

 but probably he does not occur east of the Shevaroy 

 Hills. He is seldom found far from water. He loves 

 to whistle his merry tune to the accompaniment of 

 running streams. " Few birds," writes Eha, " have been 

 endowed with so rich a voice, and it would be world- 

 famous as a songster if it could only learn a tune. It 

 is always practising, but makes no progress." It com- 

 mences to whistle a cheery lay and then suddenly 

 stops short ; it is this habit which has earned for it the 

 name of " the idle schoolboy." 



The Bhimraj or larger racket-tailed drongo (Dts- 

 semurus paradiseus) deserves a place of honour among 



