vag 
Mea 
via 
q FF, 
| 296 BOMBAY DUCKS 
the song-birds of India. According to Mr. Oates, this 
drongo “has a really fine song, and is perhaps the best 
singing-bird of the East.” This statement should, 
however, be accepted with reserve, for, in my opinion, 
Mr. Oates is not a first-class judge of the quality of a — 
bird’s song. He speaks of the magpie robin as only 
“a fairly good songster.” After this one is surprised 
at no opinion of his regarding the vocal powers of a 
bird. The truth of the matter is that the Bhimraj, 
which is just a glorified king-crow—one having a crest 
and a tail twenty inches long—is a perfect mimic. 
According to Jerdon, it will “imitate all sorts of sounds, 
as of dogs, sheep, cats, goats, poultry, and the notes of 
many birds ; hence it used to be called by some Hazar- 
dastan, or the bird with a thousand tales (not tails). 
Blythe had one that imitated the fine song of the shama 
to petfection.” The Bhimraj makes an excellent pet. 
There are in India, as in every country, a whole host 
of birds which perhaps scarcely merit the name of 
song-birds, but which, nevertheless, emit very pleasant 
sounds; such are the bulbuls, mynas, bee-eaters, and 
king-crows. None of these are very great musicians, 
but we should be sorry to lose their voices, Were 
there no bulbuls our hill stations would lose half their 
charm, and were the mynas and the king-crows to 
disappear the plains of India would become very 
dreary. 
It is probably quite incorrect to include the cuckoo 
among the song-birds. Nevertheless I am going to do 
so, for the simple reason that there are few birds 
of which the note is more pleasing to my ear. I have 
