46 
The Bbds of India. 
There are occasions on which watching birds has inspired in me " a sooth- 
iug, melancholy joy." But, as a rule, the pleasure which the feathered folk 
give me, is of a more lively and exhilarating nature, not infrequently cul- 
minating in mirth and laughter. For this, the birds of India are largely 
responsible. As I have said elsewhei'e, the man who can watch the doings 
of the Indian Crow for half an hour without being provoked to laughter 
should, without delay, apply for six months' leave on medical certificate. 
I am sometimes asked. Wherein lies the attraction of birds.' 
The reply is: " In their sprightliness, their vivacity, their beauty, and 
their grace." As Mr. F. W. Headley justly observes, "a bird seems to have 
more life in him than anj' other living creature." 
In a sense birds stand at the head of creation. It is on them that 
nature has showered a double portion of her good things. Their power of 
flight gives them a big advantage over their terrestrial fellow-creatures. 
" Birds," wrote Professor Newton, "have no need to lurk hidden in dens, or 
to slink from place to place under the shelter of the inequalities of the 
ground or of the vegetation which clothes it, as is the case with so many 
animals of similar size." This locomotive superiority, although it must add 
greatly to the happiness of the life of a bird lias not been all gain. Animals 
are so constituted that it is only through intense struggle that they advance 
towards perfection. The fowls of the air, safe in their power of flight, have 
not been obliged to use their wits to the extent that terrestrial creatures 
have. Instead of developing a large brain, they have dissipated their 
■energy in flight, song, and gorgeous plumage. Birds form a backwater in 
the stream of evolution. 
The Scientific Study of Birds. 
I have already dwelt upon the richness of the avifauna of India. It 
is this wealth in number and variety of species which makes it so valuable 
to the biologist. 
Grant Allen has said somewhere that there is no university like the 
tropics, that no man can be said to be properly educated who has not passed 
the tropical tripos. 
It is significant that the idea of natural selection came to both Darwin 
and Wallace in the tropics. This great hypothesis revolutionised biology. 
But since Darwin's day the science has made comparatively little progress. 
This appears to be iu great part due to the comparative poverty of the 
European fauna. The Americans are more fortunate in this respect. But 
in the New World the progress of biological science has been greatly 
hindered by the prevailing belief in America, not only that acquired charac- 
teristics are capable of inheritance, but that their inheritance has played an 
important part in evolution. 
Whether or no the explanations I suggest are the correct ones, the 
fact remains that of late years biology has made progress commensurate 
with the impetus given it by the publication of Darwin's " Origin of 
Species." 
