62 
A NATURALIST ON THE PROWL. 
rent system. I got my ingenious chupprassie, Yakoob 
Khan, to make a rough cage of bamboos, and in this I 
hung my little Bulbul among the convolvulus which over- 
grew the verandah, where his parents could visit him and 
bring him dainties. This they did all day. Now it was a 
soft green grasshopper, now a fat mantis, with the legs 
and hard parts stripped off. They made an absurd 
amount of fuss, bo-peeping at me through the leaves and 
calling out to one another to beware. I knew they were 
trying to poison the innocent mind of their little son 
against me. But I foiled their designs. I fed him when 
they were away and treated him kindly and so completely 
won his confidence in a week that I had only to whistle 
from any part of the house and he would answer me. 
So all went well until one Sunday morning, when I was 
sitting reading and my little pet was hanging in the 
verandah. Suddenly I heard shrieks of agony from his 
cage, and rushing out, found him with his back against 
the bars and his wings stretched out, like a butterfly 
pinned to a board. I looked behind, and there was the 
neck of a snake, stretched like a cord from the trellis to 
the cage. The abominable reptile had insinuated its head 
between the bars and caught the bird by the back, and 
