28 GARDEN AND AVIARY BIRDS. 



Bulbul has a wide range in the dry north-western and 

 central parts of India, and extends into Persia to the 

 westward. Persian birds are noted to be finer songsters 

 than Indian, and make very nice cage pets. This is, 

 indeed, the nicest cage or aviary bird of all the Bulbuls, 

 being of an unusually tame and friendly disposition even 

 when caught old. It is also unusually intelligent ; I 

 remember a bird which I had only had a day or so 

 escaping from its cage and coming back to it the next 

 day. I should say, that a hand-reared bird of this 

 species would be a charming pet, and in any case its 

 tameness and vocal powers strongly recommend it to the 

 fancier. I have never seen it wild, but it may not un- 

 frequently be bought in Calcutta. In confinement, at any 

 rate, it likes to roost at night in a hole instead of per- 

 ching like most Bulbuls. 



THE GREEN BULBULS, or Harewas, as they are called 

 by the natives, are classed in the Fauna of British India 

 volumes among the Babblers, but Mr. E. C. S. Baker 

 has given good reasons for keeping them among the 

 Bulbuls still. In this I thoroughly agree ; these birds 

 have the characteristic short legs of Bulbuls, and they do 

 not use their feet in feeding as Babblers do. However, 

 they are certainly very different in some respects from 

 the typical Bulbuls, though they do not thereby approach 

 the Babblers at all. They have no trace of a crest, their 

 bills are long and curved, and they have a long tongue, 

 which they protrude to suck up liquid food. They are 

 much more active on their feet among the twigs than other 

 Bulbuls, and have a stronger and more vigorous flight. 



