26 HABITS AND HAUNTS OP BIRDS 



kinds occur ia the plains only and some in the hills. They are arboreal 

 in their habits. Most of them prefer forest country, more or less dense, 

 but some are found in open slightly wooded country. They build small 

 neat cup-shaped nests, often very slight in structure ; generally fixed in 

 forks where two or three shoots divide near the ends of boughs ; but 

 sometimes hung from a horizontal fork like a tiny basket. The egg^ 

 are typically pinkish white, thickly spotted, and blotched with claret 

 or purple. Of the green bulbuls {Phi/llornis), the eggs are white, with 

 a few brownish marks, and in the genus lora the ground colour is 

 greyish white, and the markings are very curious, jagged irregular streaks 

 of greyish, reddish, or purplish brown. 



Blue birds, {Irena). — Only one species is found in India, and 

 that only in the Malabar forests. They are strictly arboreal in their 

 habits and do not migrate. They keep in small parties near the tops 

 of high trees. The nest is rough and untidy, not the least like an oriole. 

 The eggs are pale greenish, streaked and spotted with duskj'^. 



Orioles, [Oriolus). — Are permanent residents in India, but they 

 wander much in the cold weather. They are quite arboreal in their 

 habits, and build in trees a beautiful neat basket-shaped nest. They are 

 not gregarious. The eggs are glossy white, with a few dark spots. They 

 are found all over India, both in hills and plains. 



Robins, (Cops^ckus, KUtacincla, Myiomela, Grandala, ThamnO' 

 hid). — This group comprises many widely differing forms. The magpie 

 robin {Copsychus saularis) is found throughout India in wooded tracts 

 and gardens. The shama (KiUacincla macroura) is very local, and inhabits 

 only dense thickets in forests. The long-winged blue chat {Grandala 

 coelicolor) is a most anomalous form, approaching in some points very 

 near the starlings. It is only found near the snow in the alpine Hima- 

 layas. The white-tailed blue chat [Myiomela leucura) is also confined to 

 the Himalayas, and is found at rather high altitudes. The true robins 

 of India {TAamnobia) are found in the open plains throucrhout the country. 

 All the robins build on or very near the ground often in banks or 

 clefts of rocks. They- do not migrate; are solitary, and lay spotted or 

 more often clouded eggs. 



Bush chats, {Pratincola, Oreiocola). — A group of small birds 

 found throughout the plains, especially in dry open country in the cold 

 weather, but retiring, as a rule, to the hills to breed. Only a very few 

 nestle in the plains. Their habits are very much those of the robins, 



