84 ANIMALS OF NO IMPORTANCE. 



a positive pride in miscalling the birds and beasts which 

 surround us. So far as I know the only reasons for calling 

 Dicrurus macrocercus the King-Crow are, that he spends 

 great part of his life in chasing crows proper, that he is 

 black from head to tail, and that the latter appendage is 

 forked ; this is possibly regarded as a sign of royalty. The 

 tail is certainly the feature of the King-Crow. When seen 

 sitting on a telegraph wire or on the bare branch of a tree 

 the bird's favourite positions the tail appears to be too 

 long for the owner, and gives it a fragile appearance ; while 

 if the bird be seated on a branch covered with foliage, the 

 tail appears to be an unmitigated nuisance to its possessor. 

 This opinion, however, is soon changed when the bird is 

 seen at work in the air. Insects form its chief food. No 

 six-legged creature comes amiss to it, not even a bee or a 

 wasp. It takes up a position on the top of a tree, bush, or 

 other eminence, until it catches sight of an insect, when it 

 sallies forth and seizes it. The bird's gymnastic perfor- 

 mances in the air are marvellous, its forked tail is a perfect 

 steering apparatus. It is futile to attempt to describe the 

 aerial flights of the bird especially when everyone in India 

 may see them for himself if he only keep his eyes open. 

 Like the crow proper, this bird spends much of its time on 

 the backs of cattle, looking for insects. India is not the 

 only country in which birds have acquired this habit. The 

 jackdaw and magpie are said to perform a similar service 

 for English sheep and cows, but if we may believe the 

 British farmer, the jackdaw and magpie are far less skilled 

 operators, for their beaks often give the cattle nasty wounds. 

 Mr. Hudson, in his most recent book, maintains that 

 there is some one occasion when every bird is seen at its 

 very best. This psychological moment for the King-Crow 

 is when he is chasing a common or garden crow. Like the 

 Englishman, the King-Crow holds that his house is his 

 castle. But the sagacious bird goes farther than the Eng- 

 lishman ; he puts a wide interpretation on the meaning of 

 the word " house," making it include not only the nest, but 



