SOME COMMON INDIAN BIRDS. 189 



is a country cursed with Cuckoos," and the list truly is a long 

 one, and most of them have peculiar cries. There is one found 

 in many gardens (Cuculus micropterus) that says most distinctly, 

 " Make more Pekoe." 



In a certain garden in Bengal that I know well stands an 

 ancient banyan tree. This is the haunt of a colony of Spotted 

 Owlets (Athene brama), birds closely allied to the European 

 Little Owl (A. noctua), the far-famed bird of Minerva. These 

 Little Owlets are very noisy, and keep up a continuous chatter. 

 A pair built their nest near the house, and for some reason or 

 other one of the birds took a violent dislike to my father. It 

 would swoop down and peck at his head if he went anywhere 

 near the nest, and so violent were its onsets that it actually drew 

 blood, and on one occasion lifted the cap from off his head. 

 Other people, strangely enough, the Owl left alone, and my 

 father was the only member of the household on whom it ever 

 vented its spite. Most curious and quaint little birds are these 

 Owls. If you should happen to disturb one from its sleep 

 in some tree during the day it will blink and peer at you, snap- 

 ping its bill the while, and going through the most absurd antics, 

 bowing and courtesying. Unlike most other Owls, this one is 

 somewhat sedentary in its habits, and prefers to sit and watch 

 for its prey from some post of vantage, as the roof of a house or 

 tree-stump. It comes out early in the evening, and retires late 

 — just about the time the King-Crow begins to tune up. 



The list of Owls found in India is a lengthy one, and beyond 

 the scope of the present paper ; but among the common forms I 

 might mention the Barn-Owl, a bird often found in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Indian houses, and of almost world-wide distribu- 

 tion ; and, being subject to much climatic variation, has given 

 ri3e to many bad species, and it may be as well to say that there 

 is in reality only one Barn-Owl, and that is Strixflammea. No 

 bird has suffered more at the hands of vulgar superstition than 

 the Owl, both at home and abroad, and natives in India always 

 speak of it as something devilish and uncanny, and if one should 

 happen to enter a house they say a death is certain to take 

 place. 



The Honeysuckers, or Sunbirds, to a certain extent, replace 

 in the Old World the Humming-birds of the New. It would 



