ROSE-RINGED PAROQUET IN THE EASTERN SUNDURBUN. 383 



nnd Bhola rivers on the extreme eastern side of the Jessore 

 district. They at once select suitable trees with convenient 

 hollows in them, some 25 to 30 cubits above the surface of the 

 grouud, rather far apart from one another, and away from the 

 banks of rivers and khdls. The tree most preferred is, evidently, 

 the Keurd, ( Sonneratia apetala, Buchanan) a large tree, the 

 Avood of which is light, and the next in demand is, apparently, 

 the Sundri, (Heritiera minor, Roxburgh). 



They build their nests in the hollows, first scooping them 

 down perpendicularly some two to two and a half feet, so that 

 it requires a long arm to be able to remove the nestlings in 

 them, and many go out on this quest annually at the proper 

 season, as a pair of these birds readily fetch about a Rupee or 

 two shillings in the neighbouring hits or fairs, being in 

 great demand by the natives on account of their beautv, and 

 the facility with which they can be taught to imitate the 

 human voice. 



The eggs are, usually, two to three, and sometimes four in 

 number, slightly smaller in size than pigeon's eggs, and in 

 color like those of the domesticated fowl, only slightly more 

 whitish. They are deposited in the end of the hollows, the 

 scrapings of the wood being gathered below to form a soft bed 

 for them, and the young when hatched. Both the parent birds 

 perform, alternately, the duty of incubation. The eggs take, I 

 have been told, about four weeks to hatch, but on this point I 

 have no exact knowledge personally. 



During the mouth of June men go out bird-nesting into the 

 interior of the forests of the Sundurbun, generally three or 

 four of them together, and then the young birds are not quite 

 fledged, and therefore unable to quit their nests. Great numbers 

 of them are hauled out of their nests by the sevei'al parties 

 who go out for them, and they find, as before stated, a ready 

 sale for the nestlings. 



The young are able to leave their nests and fly away in the 

 following month, July, and they then go to the cultivated 

 tracts, roosting on the reed jungle, known in the vernacular as 

 iVa/, ( Arundo karka, Linnaeus) along the banks of streams ; 

 and as vast flocks of them congregate in the same place every 

 night, where they remain for about a month, if undisturbed, 

 before dispersing themselves all over the surrounding country, 

 they are easily caught in large u umbers with bird-lime in the 

 following manner : — Slender sticks of split bamboo with their 

 upper ends well smeared with bird-lime are placed in those 

 parts of the Nal jungle where the birds are likely to settle for 

 the night, and the next morning the flocks fly away, leaving 

 those of their companions that have been caught, with the 

 bird-lime, to captivity for life. Many are secured in this way, 



O A 



