36 A BIRD CALENDAR 



The brain-fever bird grows more vociferous 

 day by day. The crow-pheasants, which have 

 been comparatively silent during the colder 

 months of the year, now begin to utter their 

 low sonorous zvhoot, whoot, whoot, which is heard 

 chiefly at dawn. 



Everywhere the birds are joyful and noisy ; 

 nowhere more so than at the silk-cotton and 

 the coral trees. These, although botanically 

 very different, display many features in com- 

 mon. They begin to lose their leaves soon 

 after the monsoon is over, and are leafless by 

 the end of the winter. In the early spring, 

 while the tree is still devoid of foliage, huge 

 scarlet, crimson or yellow flowers emerge from 

 every branch. Each flower is plentifully 

 supplied with honey; it is a flowing bowl of 

 which all are invited to partake, and hundreds 

 of thousands of birds accept the invitation with 

 right good-will. The scene at each of these 

 trees, when in full flower, baffles description. 



Scores of birds forgather there rosy star- 

 lings, mynas, babblers, bulbuls, king-crows, 

 tree-pies, green parrots, sunbirds and crows. 

 These all drink riotously and revel so loudly 

 that the sound may be heard at a distance of 

 half a mile or more. Even before the sun has 



