22 THE BIRDS OF CALCUTTA. 



be ungenerously suggested that such birds are afraii 

 to go about alone, lest their ribald remarks, made 

 in the security of numbers, meet with a just retalia- 

 tion at the beaks and claws of outraged bird society ; 

 and so it may be, but nevertheless there is a well- 

 spring of sincere sociability under the Babbler's, 

 frowsy feathering. On the comparatively rare occa- 

 sions when my captives were still, they employed 

 themselves in affectionately tickling each other's 

 heads as they cuddled together, and I have even seen. 

 one diligently employed in endeavouring to clean 

 the wing of a friend, soiled by the bird Ume with, 

 which its capture had been efiected. At the same 

 time it must be admitted that the addition to their 

 ordinary diet of table scraps of such a delicacy as a 

 cockroach was apt to produce a sad disruption of 

 fraternal harmony. On such occasions one might 

 see one brother prone in the sand, while another,, 

 holding his head " in chancery " with one foot,, 

 was punching the same with his beak in a 

 manner calculated to awake grave fears for the 

 integrity of the sufferer's skull when the punishment- 

 should be over ; and once I saw two birds adherent 

 with bill and claw to one and the same cockroach,, 

 which a third was devouring, as neither of the joint 

 owners dared to let go his hold ! These traits of 

 character would seem to show that Craterojm& 



