28 THE BIRDS OF CALCUTTA. 



not often descend to earth, and wisely. No small 

 bird looks well on the ground unless he can run, like 

 the wagtail, and even then he is rather insignificant. 

 But place the Bulbul as one generally sees him, 

 on a lofty spray, his jetty crest erect, and his tail 

 drooping in a neglige manner all his own, and it is 

 difficult to find a small bird so picturesque. True, his 

 black fore-quarters fade off to dusty brown on the 

 wings and iron-grey on the breast, and the only 

 bright colour he boasts is the silky crimson patch 

 modestly concealed under the root of his tail ; but 

 even so he is more strikingly attired than most 

 European birds. Both cock and hen are also equally 

 well dressed ; but the young are duller and look 

 rather shabby, especially as they have to wear a 

 rusty-buff escutcheon instead of a blood-red one. 

 This curiously-placed bit of colour seems a family 

 feature with Bulbuls ; it is always either red or 

 yellow, however, when it occurs at all, other tints 

 being strictly barred. The only Bulbul which occurs 

 in Europe — in the Cyelades — bears a yellow patch, 

 being otherwise of a snufEy brown ; and this is 

 possibly the bird which has got mixed up with the 

 nightingale in Eastern poetry, as it occurs in Pales- 

 tine, and is there called Bulbul by the Arabs. Bulbul 

 in Persian is always supposed to mean the true 

 nightingale, the lover of the rose, and there seems 



