GLIMPSES OF 

 INDIAN BIRDS 



BIRDS IN A GROVE 

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THE small groves that usually surround 

 hamlets in Oudh are favourite resorts of 

 birds. 

 I know of few more pleasant ways of 

 passing an hour than under the trees in such a grove 

 at the beginning of December, when the weather is 

 perfect. The number of birds that show themselves is 

 truly astonishing. 



Recently I tarried for a little time in such a grove 

 consisting of half a dozen mango trees, a tamarind 

 and a pipal, and witnessed there a veritable avian 

 pageant — a pageant accompanied by music. 



The sunbirds {Arachnechthra asiatica) were the 

 leading minstrels. There may have been a dozen of 

 them in the little tope. To count them was impossible, 

 because ■ sunbirds are never still for two seconds 

 together. When not flitting about amid the foUage 

 looking for insects they are playing hide-and-seek, or 

 pouring out their canary-like song.- At this season of 



