146 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



SOME COMMON INDIAN BIEDS. 

 By Gordon Dalgliesh. 



The new arrival in India cannot help being struck by the 

 number of different birds that are to be seen in an ordinary 

 garden, and even in the large cities and towns of the East bird- 

 life is extraordinarily abundant. Though not nearly so many 

 song-birds as one meets with in England, yet there are some 

 which we can class as first-rate musicians, and others whose 

 notes are at least striking and quaint. A pleasing feature with 

 regard to a number of Indian birds is their remarkable tameness. 

 and the reasons for this are not far to seek — one being that the 

 " mild Hindoo " is very much averse to taking life, and natives 

 with guns are few ; another being that one is so accustomed out 

 there to see birds of brilliant plumage, that this does not cause a 

 sensation like in England, where, if a beautiful bird is seen— as, 

 for instance, an Oriole or Boiler — every gun in the place is out 

 after it. 



In the following paper I propose to give a short account of 

 some of the common birds one meets with in an up-country 

 garden. The nomenclature is that of Messrs. Blanford and 

 Oates in the ' Fauna of British India — Birds,' vols, i.-iv. 



House-Crow {Corvus splendens). — The old saying that " fami- 

 liarity breeds contempt " is certainly true with regard to the 

 Crow, for he is perhaps the most familiar of all Indian birds, 

 from the large towns and railway stations right out into the 

 heart of the country. Contempt for the whole human race he 

 certainly has, and the only thing he stands in awe of at all is a 

 gun, and at the sight of this he is off at once ; and, as they say 

 of the Book in England, he seems to smell powder. Nothing in 

 the way of food comes amiss to him, from dainty tit-bits from the 

 sahib's table in the verandah down to the veriest filth and garbage 

 of the bazaar. People accustomed to his nasty thieving and 

 sneaking ways are apt to grudge him his scientific name of 

 splendens, but in spite of his bad character it must be admitted 

 that the name is an appropriate one. His whole appearance 



