188 



NEW ORNITHOLOGY OF NEPAL. 



When cattle pass their way they will partially attend on the herd 

 descending occasionally from their perch to snap up the insects and 

 grubs brought to light by the act of grazing. The Dahils are perpetually 

 in motion, and raise and depress the body with flirtation of the tail, exact- 

 ly in the Wagtail manner. Their habits of society, in respect to their 

 own kind, are solitary or nearly so ; except in the breeding season when 

 these monogamous and attached birds steadily unite to rear and defend 

 their young. The female usually lays 5 spotted eggs, bringing up from 

 3 to 4 young ones ; and but once a year, unless the first brood has failed or been 

 rifled from her. The nest is carelessly made of grass, but is always placed 

 in a secure and sheltered position, commonly a hole in a wall, sometimes the 

 interior of a low thick prickly plant. The Dahil is one of the boldest and 

 most docile of birds ; and is perpetually caged both for his song and his 

 pugnacity. Few of the Thrushes have a finer note ; nor is it degraded 

 by apish tricks of imitation, though this intelligent bird will lend its 

 courage for the profit or amusement of its keeper. In the spring the 

 male Dahils are perpetually challenging each other, and no sooner is the 

 defiance of one uttered than it is answered by another. 



The professional bird keeper, availing himself of this propensity, takes 

 out his tame male on his fist, and proceeds to the nearest garden or grove. 

 The bird, at his bidding, presently challenges : the wild one immediately 

 answers : the former is then slipt, and a desperate contest ensues between 

 the two, during which the fowler readily secures the wild bird, with the 

 tame one's assistance ; for, the latter will deliberately aid his owner's pur- 

 jjose, seizing the wild bird, at the critical moment, with both claws and 

 bill and retaining it till his master come up, in case it has not been so much 

 exhausted by the previous contest as to be disabled from flying away upon 

 the man's approach. Fighting the tame birds is a favourite amusement 

 of the rich ; nor can any race of game cocks contend with more energy 

 and resolution than do these singular Motacillo-Meruline species. 



Indication of generic chat^acter. Bill, feet, and habit of body, Meruline ; 

 tip of the lower mandible, vaguely recurved and notched : tarsi high, 



