CATALOGUE. 
277 
three to four 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, — com- 
monly a hole in a wall, sometimes the interior of a low, thick, prickly 
plant. The Dayal is one of the boldest and most docile of birds, 
and is perpetually caged both for his song and his pugnacity. Tew 
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 birds 
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 slipped, 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 purpose, seizing the wild bird at the critical moment 
with both claws and bill, and retaining it till his master comes 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 birds."— (Hodgs., As. Ees. XIX. p. 186.) 
" This bird is used by the Mussulmen when invoking the name of 
God."— (Dr. r. (B.) HamHton's MS.) 
" In Ceylon, this familiar bird is called the ' Magpie Eobin * by 
Europeans, and the natives regard it with as much interest as we do 
our own red-breasted favourite, of which it is the Eastern repre- 
sentative. It is seldom seen away from habitations, about which it 
usually builds, though the nest is often placed in a thick bush or 
hollow tree. The eggs, commonly four in number, are bright blue, 
thickly spotted with brown at the obtuse end. The food is insects 
of all kinds and in all stages, captured on the ground and on trees. 
They have a variety of notes, and the song poured out in the 
fulness of their joy in the pairing season is very pleasing. On the 
top of a towering cotton-tree, opposite my residence in Colombo 
(in Ceylon), a Magpie Eobin daily for some weeks charmed me 
with his song, whilst his mate sat brooding her eggs or callow 
nestlings in the roof of a native hut beneath him. One morning, 
after the young had left the nest and betaken themselves to the 
