THE NATURALIST IN A TRAIN 83 
of every railway, sitting on the wires until an insect 
comes within range, when the drongos at once take to 
their wings and give chase, 
It is amusing to notice how the king-crow always 
seeks shade when the sun is very hot. In the middle 
of the day fully 80 per cent of the king-crow hadztuds 
of the telegraph wire will be seen seated quite close to 
a pole, so that its shadow falls upon them. 
The roller (Coracias indica), or blue jay, as it is more 
commonly called in India, is another bird which is very 
partial to the electric telegraph. It sits indiscriminately 
on either wires or poles. 
Doves, too, are very fond of resting on the wires, 
They are not insectivorous birds, and are, consequently, 
not on the look out for prey, but love to sit in the sun, 
especially in the early winter morning when the air is 
still chilly, and in this attitude they ponder over the 
problems which agitate the feathered world. The pretty 
little bee-eater (A7erops viridis) is another frequenter of 
the telegraph wires. Very beautiful he looks in his 
green dress as he sits facing the line, and still more 
striking is his appearance when he makes a sudden 
dash at some Lilliputian quarry, for, when flying in the 
glare of the sun, his plumage assumes a golden hue. 
The birds perched on the telegraph wire, although 
they absorb the greater part of one’s attention, form 
but a small fraction of the species to be seen during a 
railway journey. It is no exaggeration to assert that a 
traveller by rail from Peshawar to Madras should, aided 
by a good field-glass, be able to distinguish fully one- 
third of the commoner birds of India. 
4 
