Sherman — Birds by the Wayside 255 



sation for the bird student. By rising- at the first p'eep of 

 dawn it was possible to secure two hours for the observation 

 of birds before breakfast time. Yet this boon was not 

 without its drawbacks, in the hotels that were lig-hted b}'' 

 kerosene. When I found that my -rooms on the ground floor 

 had a back door so badly warped that two cobras abreast 

 could enter at any time, and that there were no matches with 

 which to light the kerosene lamp, I had fears that my first 

 steps in the morning might fall on a cobra. To be sure it 

 \va.s winter, a season when these snakes 'are not much abroad. 

 We are not accustomed to think of snakes as city dwellers, 

 but the deadly cobra is quite urban in its tastes, seeking for 

 its dwelling-place a hole in the mud walls of the natives' huts ; 

 cactus hedges also are favored resorts. Not only cobras but 

 other venomous snakes are sometimes found on bedroom 

 floors, in schoolrooms, and in other human resorts, as we 

 may learn f-rom several writers. 



One of the species of birds frequently seen near the hotels 

 vv^as the Indian Hoopoe ( Upupa indica) . Both the manner 

 of its flight and the barred portion of its plumage were strong 

 reminders of the Woodpeckers. Immediately upon alighting 

 its bright-colored crest is erected, and the same thing hap- 

 pens when the bi-rd is frightened. At other times the crest 

 lies flat, the 'end of it projecting beyond the head affords in 

 outline a symmetrical balance to the long bill, making the head 

 resemble a double-pointed pick-ax. This semblance is es- 

 pecially marked when the bird is digging for its living in the 

 earth. The sight of my first Hoopoe was a long anticipated 

 event, and was of unusual significance from the fact that it 

 was the first foreign bird in a free state to be met of which 

 I had retained a mental picture from my early childhood, or 

 more correctly speaking, it was a mental picture of a picture, 

 one found in the second book I owned. It was a book then, 

 a wonderful book, though now it would be called a tiny bro- 

 chure of twenty-four pag^es. Its title is "A History of Birds 

 for Children." Its illustrated cove-r is wonderful; still more 

 so is its wood-cut illustration of the Hoopoe, for it proves 



