30 TlMEHRI. 
slowly raising its bill, it utters a clear bell-like note, but 
so low that at first it is almost impossible to discover 
where the strange sound comes from. Then, if it sees a 
fly settle near the ground, it very gradually and quietly 
approaches the victim, slowly lowers the point of its bill 
till it is near the fly, and suddenly, with an odd clicking 
sound, and with one rapid little jerk of the head the fly is 
seized and swallowed. Then the slow, well regulated 
behaviour is resumed. Every motion seems regulated 
by clock work. The stateliness, the dignified carriage of 
the tail and wings, and the rich and subdued beauty of 
colouring of the feathers reminded me somehow of a 
certain little, quiet, stately old lady in a stiff full dress 
of older brocade. 
The bird is easily tamed, and is highly valued in the 
civilized parts of the colony because of the number of 
flies and other small insects — the true tropical beasts of 
prey — which it destroys. 
Tame trumpet birds {Psophia crepitans), too, are both 
amusing and beautiful. The long feathers of a soft gray 
colour, overlying the back in curiously graceful round- 
ed masses, contrast beautifully with the short black 
feathers, touched with glittering purple, of the chest and 
neck. The strangely deep and full note, uttered singly, 
with a pause between each two, is very striking ; and 
because of its supposed likeness to the sound of a 
trumpet has given a name to the bird. They are 
among the commonest tame animals in Indian houses, 
and they follow their masters about even to some dis- 
tance from home, like dogs. During these walks, as if 
in an exuberance of good spirits, they every now and 
