i 5 8 
A NATURALIST ON THE PROWL . 
its trousers, and this is the badge of all Bulbuls ; they 
must have a patch of bright colour on that place. The 
Sind Bulbul wears it yellow. Another badge is the up- 
turned crest, which expresses the gleeful heart. If you 
watch a canary, or any other merry-souled bird, you will 
see that it smiles by erecting the feathers on the top of 
its head. Now, by a natural law, the feathers which are 
constantly being erected are developed and grow upwards, 
and what was a passing expression in the ancestor be- 
comes a permanent feature in the descendants. So every 
man who cultivates a grumbling disposition is labouring 
to bequeath a sour face to his children. On the other 
hand, the merry twinkling eye with which some men are 
born is nothing else than the crystallised result of a 
thousand humorous thoughts in past generations. This 
is my philosophy of evolution. 
These crested Bulbuls are the true Bulbuls, but the 
family ramifies into a great variety of birds more or less 
bulbuline in their dress and customs. There is the White- 
browed Bulbul, a dingy-coloured bird which comes about 
Bombay gardens and lets its feelings off every now 
and then in a spasmodic rattle of sweetish notes, in 
which, however, I recognise the family voice. It has 
