BIRD-NOTES 51 



during the mating season," and this, I believe, is the 

 correct explanation. No doubt the birds will behave 

 in the same way when actually courting the females 

 in fact, Mr. H. N. Ridley's description 1 of the courting 

 performances of Copsychus saularis tallies pretty closely 

 with the above account of the males' singing contests 

 but it is clear that the presence of the female is not the 

 only stimulus required to call forth these " manifestations 

 of physical energy." Mr. Ridley remarks (pp. 83, 84) further 

 of C. saularis that it is "a most useful insect-destroyer, 

 attacking and devouring even large caterpillars. I once 

 saw one pecking at an unfortunate young mouse, which 

 had apparently been somehow washed out of its nest by 

 a heavy storm of rain. On another occasion I saw one 

 furiously attack a squirrel (Nanosciurus exilis) which 

 was climbing on a tree and knock it off the branch 

 to the ground. Again the squirrel attempted to climb 

 up, and again it was struck to the ground ; even then 

 the Murai pursued it till it fled to refuge in the bushes, 

 still pursued by the bird." 



Another bird, whose note soon became familiar to 

 me, was the common Night-Jar of the country, Capri' 

 mulgus macrurus. On bright moonlight nights these 

 birds love to settle on roads and paths and utter their 

 single monotonous note, "tok, tok, tok"; the sound 

 may aptly be compared to the noise made by a stone skip- 

 ping along a sheet of ice, and this comparison by some 

 strange reflex saved me from the irritability which so 

 many Europeans display when on some stifling tropical 

 night the bird strikes up its monotone within their hear- 

 ing ; to me the sound recalled cold days at home, the 

 ring of skates on ice, frost-bound earth and water, and 

 1 Journ. Roy. As. Soc. S. Br., No. 31 (1898), p. 84. 



