1842.] Asiatic Society. 889 



Indicus), which during the cool season is one of the very commonest birds we have, 

 had not been once seen by me for two or three months in places where it had abounded, 

 when in the course of my late excursion I observed three or four upon one occasion 

 hawking over a paddy field. Of Swifts, we have two species common throughout 

 the year; viz. Cypselus affinis, Gray, which frequents towns, and is chiefly seen 

 in their immediate neighbourhood, and C. palmarum which mainly affects rural 

 districts, building its nests within the fronds of the fan -leaved palms, sometimes twenty 

 or thirty pairs of them associating in those of a single tree, while it is also rare to 

 meet with one of the same palms clustered with the pensile nests of the Baya, 

 (Euplectes Phillipensis,) that does not also harbour two or three pairs of this elegant 

 little Palm Swift. 



Among the perchers, the common Indian Crow (Corvus splendens, Vieillot), the 

 common Mynah (Pastor tristis), and the common House Sparrow (Pyrgita domes- 

 ticaj, were, of course, everywhere abundant about habitations. No other Mynah or 

 allied bird fell under my notice, except the Pied Starling (Sturnus contra). The 

 Indian Black Crow (Corvus macrorhynchos ) , was here and there seen along the river 

 bank; Crypsirina vagabunda in the trees. In the various green lanes, orchard- 

 gardens, and other most likely places to meet with small perching birds in general, 

 scarcely a chirp could usually be heard, and not a bird be seen for perhaps five or ten 

 minutes together: but Columba tigrina was numerous in most places, perpetually 

 uttering its coo, and about the most conspicuous feathered inhabitant of this part of 

 Bengal throughout the year is the gregarious and noisy Malacocercus terricolor, 

 (Hodgson, here called Chatarrhoea, or, oftener, Saat Bhye, vide J. A. S. X, 650); 

 the tiny but loud chirping Tailor-bird ( Orthotomus BennettiiJ, and the various- 

 chirping Iora typhia vel scapularis, are other conspicuous species at all seasons; 

 also the Indian Black -headed Oriole (Oriolus Hodsonii, apud Swainson), and two 

 species of Bulbuls (Hcematornis of Swainson, the Ixos Cafer and /. jocosus, Aucto- 

 rum). The assemblages of Bayas (Euplectes Phillipensis) all but invariably select 

 a fan-leaved palm wherefrom to hang their curious and beautifully constructed nests, 

 preferring the immediate vicinity of human abodes ; but on one occasion I noticed 

 a number of these pensile nests upon two small exogenous trees, which stood alone 

 near the margin of a rice-field. Small flocks of Pyrrhulauda crucigera were occa- 

 sionally put up in the rice-fields ; and among conspicuous species should not be 

 omitted the Fingah (Dicrurus Fingah) % though it appeared to be considerably less 

 numerous than at other seasons ; the Butchanga of the Bengalees (D. ceneus) was 

 likewise met with. The Dial ( Copsychus saularis), whose pleasing song reminds 

 one of the Robin of Europe, though inferior in quality, being intermediate to that of 

 the British Robin and Redstart, was also frequent; Muscipeta paradisea seen now and 

 then ; small troops of Pericrocotus peregrinus not rare ; and the restless Dusky Fantail 

 ( Rhipidura fuscoventris) moderately common ; this bird has a very pleasing, short 

 and tinkling, song. I obtained one specimen of Tephrodornis superciliosus ; and ob- 

 served two or three individuals of Anthusagilis, which in the cool season is most abun- 

 dant. Finally, upon the blossoms of the cocoa-nut palms, were seen feeding the 

 brilliant little Cinnyris sola, which was tolerably plentiful, its weak chirp and song 

 recalling to mind those of a Regulus, and the dull-coloured Dicceum Tickellice, Nobis 

 (or Nectarinia minima, Tickell, J. A. S. II, 577), which was less abundant. D. ery- 



