252 The Wilson Bulletin — No. 90 



(Acridotheres tristis) was not seen in Bombay, although it 

 is said to be a resident. Without appearing to exaggerate it 

 is not easy to give an adequate idea of the very great abun- 

 dance of these species. Nineteen Indian House Grows stand- 

 ing on a plot of ground no more than ten feet square in a 

 Calcutta park were thought exceedingly plentiful, but after- 

 ward they were seen in greater numbers. Looking up a 

 narrow street the air above it seemed full of the Common 

 Kites, one hundred or more of them being in sight; and of 

 the Common Mynas, flocks of twenty oc thirty appeared 

 ready to fly up from one's path almost everywhere. 



Especially well named is the Indian House Crow, a bird 

 that belongs to the crow family, found in India most abun- 

 dantly in the neighborhood of houses. It is comparatively 

 fearless, and in its search for scraps of food will walk with 

 the boldness of a very tame chicken among a group of na- 

 tives who are eating. Neither is it ave-rse to coming to porch 

 floors or perching under porch roofs. Those who- are inti- 

 mately acquainted with this Crow tell us that it will enter 

 houses and eat food from the table, " for there isi no right 

 to which the Crows cling more tenaciously than the right to 

 be fed by the man whose compound they clean." " Black 

 as a crow " is not applicable to this species, since gray is the 

 predominating color, although the head and nape are black. 

 It is a very noisy bird, and all day long one's ears are filled 

 with its tiresome cawing; how^ tiresome these sounds are is 

 realized when one is out of ear-shot of them. The failure 

 to hear them on Alount Abu was one thing that caused that 

 place to be so attractive. Their place was filled in a very 

 slight measure by thei-r cousin, the Jungle Crow, or Indian 

 Corby (Corvus iiwcrorhyiichus). 



The Common Kite, less bold than the House Crow in its 

 approaches to man, is by no means a timid bird. A lady in 

 Delhi in relating to me her experiences with this species, said 

 that once when eating out of doors a Kite came so silently 

 and so deftly snatched food from her hand that she was not 

 aware of her loss until the bind had flown some distance from 



