29 A BIRD CALENDAR 



figured little birds are rendered easy of 

 recognition by the unusual scheme of colour- 

 ing displayed by the cock his upper parts 

 are earthy grey and his lower plumage is 

 black. 



The habit of the finch-lark is to soar to a 

 little height and then drop to the ground, 

 with wings closed, singing as it descends. It 

 invariably affects open plains. There are very 

 few tracts of treeless land in India which are 

 not tenanted by finch-larks. The nest is a 

 mere pad of grass and feathers placed on the 

 ground in a tussock of grass, beside a clod of 

 earth, or in a depression, such as a hoof-print. 

 The most expeditious way of finding nests of 

 these birds in places where they are abundant 

 is to walk with a line of beaters over a tract 

 of fallow land and mark carefully the spots 

 from which the birds rise. 



With February the nesting season of the 

 barn-owls (Strix flammea) begins in the United 

 Provinces, where their eggs have been taken as 

 early as the I7th. 



Towards the end of the month the white- 

 browed fantail flycatchers (Rhipidura albifron- 

 tata) begin to nest. The loud and cheerful song 

 of this little feathered exquisite is a tune of 



