The White-breasted Water-Hen
cLrauroriis: phenicurus (Pennant).
Size : About that of the Partridge.
_ Field Characters: A common slaty-grey, stub-tailed, long-
legged marsh bird with prominent white face and breast and
bright rasty-red under the tail. Singly, or pairs, skulking about
in reeds and thickets on water-logeged lund. Sexes alike.
Distribution: Resident throughout the Indian Empire to
the base of the Himdlayas--and bevond eastward to Celebes
and Formosa. Two races are recognised, vis: the paler and
smaller all-India-Ceylon-Burma-Vormosa race phanicuris, and
the darker and larger Andamans jusit/aris.
Habits: Swampy ground overgrown with reeds, and tangles
af bushes and bamboo on the margins of jheels and ponds con-
stitutes the favourite haunts of the White-breasted Water-llen. In
therainy season it wanders afield andis then commonly seeu about
water-logged burrow-pits ind roadside cuttings. At this son,
tov, it is partial to Hooded rice fields. As the bird circunspectly
stalks along the ground or skulks its way through the hedges
and undergrowth its stumpy tail, carried erect, is constantly
twitched up displaying prominently the red underneath, It is
usually shy and resents observation, betaking itself to
cover on the least suspicion and (hen peering inquisitively through
wn opening at the intruder. Lis food consists of insects, malluscs,
seeds and vegetable miatter.
This waterhen is silent except during the rains when it
breeds. At that season males indulge in fierce thongh rather
innocuous battles for mates, and became execedingly obstreperous.
When calling the bird usually clambers to the top of a bush
whence it ean command an open view of its surronndings. ‘The
ealls begin with loud rancons grunts, croaks and chuckles sug-
gestive of a bear in agony and settle down to a monotonous
metallic ka-wtk. Ad-wiah.kit-wih or kook. .kouk kook some-
what like the Coppersmith’s but louder, in a higher key, and
repeated more quickly, On cloudy, overcast days this is often
kept up for 15 minutes at a stretch, and calling continnes more
or less throughout the night.
Nesting: ‘The season mainly coincides with the South-west
Monsoon, lasting from June to October. The nest is a shallow
cup-shaped pad of twigs, creeper stems and flags of bulrushes,
It is placed either on the ground in some tangled growth near
the water, or in the interior of a bush or small tree 6 to 10 ft.
up on the margin of a tank or water-logged paddy-field. The
eges—6 or 7 in number—are rather long, smooth ovals, cream
or pinkish-white in eolour streaked and blotched with some
shade of reddish-brown,
298
The Indian Moorhen
299
137. The Indian Moorhen
Gallinila chloropus (Linnaeus).
Size: Same as the White-breasted Waterhen ; about that of the
Partridge.
Fieid Characters: Gencral effect on land that of a waterhen,
on water that of a small duck. A slaty-grey and brown marsh bird
with white border to wing and conspicuous white undertail coverts.
Longish green legs and large ungainly feet. Vairs or greyariously,
amongst partially submerged rushes, swimming or skulking about.
Distribution: Very extensive—in Europe, Asia, Africa and
America. Throughout the Indian Empire, plains and hills wp to about
6,000 ft, Our entire area is occupicd by the race indicus. Resident,
but also local migrant.
Habits; The Moorhen inhabits thick reedbeds and vegetation
bordering tanks and jheels. It hives in pairs or gregariously and is,
as a rule, shy and retiring. However, a pair or two sometimes take
up their residence on a village tank where, if unmolested, they become
surprisingly tame. The birds walk with an upright carriage and a
peculiar bobbing of the head at every step, accompanied by an upward
lick of the stumpy little ereet tail, displaying the white underneath
prominently, If disturbed it runs swiftly to cover and disappears,
making its way through the reeds and tangled vegetation, or clambering
up the stems, with ease. It swinis well inspite of its unwebbed feet,
with the fore part of the body depressed and the hind quarters raised
showing up the white undertail coverts to advantage. Its movement
on water is also attended by the same characteristic jerky bobbing
of the head and flicking of the tail. It is an adept at diving when
danger threatens, and can remain under water for considerable periods,
poking its beak out stealthily for breath from time to time. When
rising off the water the birds patter along the surface for a good dis-
tance, half running half flying, before they get under way. They fly
with laboured rapid wing-strokes a few feet above the surfacc, legs and
neck extended, but once fairly launehed are capable of long and sus-
tained flights. ‘The call is a sharp lond hivrik-crek-vek-vek heard mostly
in the mornings and evenings, especially during the breeding season
when the birds are very noisy. In addition to this abrupt call, a
variety of chuckling and softer notes are also uttered. Their diet
consists of grass shoots, seeds, water wecds, insects, frogs, ctc.
Nesting: Like most of our waterbirds, the Moorhen commences
to breed in June immediately the rains have set in, and continues
till August, sometimes rearing two successive broods. The nest
is a bulky structure of sedges and weeds placed amongst aquatic
herbage, or rarely even in a tree overhanging or near water. The
eggs—5 to 12 in number—are pale yellowish to warm buff-stone in
colour, blotched with dark reddish-brown. Incubation is said to last
about 21 days and to be shared by beth sexes.
300
oe wif
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MR ha.
The Purple Moorhen
30L
138. The Purple Moorhen
Porphyrio poliocephalus (Latham).
Size: About that of the village hen.
Field Characters: A handsome leggy, purplish-blue rail,
with long red legs and toes. A conspicuons white patch uncer
the tail and the bald, red forehead contingnous with tle heavy
bill, confirm its identity. Sexes alike. Gregariously, in swampy
reed-beds.
Distribution ; Practically throughout the plains of India,
Burma and Ceylon. West to Persia and east to Siam. The
typical race poliecephalus, is resident in our limits.
Habits: The Purple Mourhen frequents reed-covered swamps,
and edges of jheels and tanks overgrown with rushes affording
plenty of cover. The birds keep in parties and spend their
time in search of food stalking or skulking through the reett-beds
or awkwardly clambering up amongst and clinging to the stems.
They saunter about over the partially submerged weeds and
floating lotus leaves, constantly llicking their tails in the typical
waterheu or rail manner and displaying the white patch under-
neath. Except when harried, the birds are not particularly
shy or secretive. They run to cover when disturbed and are
averse to flying unless conipelled. The flight, attained with
laboured wing beats appears feeble, but the birds can travel
quite fast once they get going. ‘The neck is extendet and the
long red legs and ungainly feet trail behind. ‘Their diet is
mainly shoots—they are destructive to young paddy crops-—
and other vegetable matter, but insects and molluscs are also
eaten. They have a variety of hooting, cackling and hoarse
notes which may constantly be heard from within reed-beds and
bulrushes bordering a tank, at all hours of the day. During
the breeding season the birds are particularly noisy. The male
goes through an elaborate but Indicrons courtship display,
holding up water weeds in his bill, facing the female and bowing
and showing off before her, to the accompaniment of loud chuckles,
The Purple Moorhen is generally prized as a delicacy and
much persecuted by local shikaries.
Nesting : The season coincides with the S.-W. Monsoon, ranging
between June and September. The uest is a large pad of rush-
paddy- or grass-stems firmly interwoven, sometimes placed on a
floating islet formed by matted water weeds, at others from to 3 fcet
above water level in rushes and reeds standing in water. The
normal! clutch consists of 3 to 7 eggs, varying from pale yellowish-
stone to reddish-buff in ground cotour, blotched and spotted
with reddish-brown. The birds guard their young vigilautly
and are often bald in defending them against predators.
302
The Coot
393
Fulica aira Linnaeus.
Size: About that of the village hen, or ¢ grown duckling.
Field Characters: A slaty-black, dumpy, practically tailless
water bird,—rather duck-like on water in the distance—with
ivory-white pointed bill and a white horny shield covering fore-
head. Peculiar lobed or scalloped toes. Sexes alike. Gre-
gariously, on tanks and jheels.
Distribution: Europe, N. Africa, Asia, America, Practically
throughout India, Assim and Burma (but not Ceylon) up to about
8,000 ft. in the Outer Himflayfis. Resident, but also a numerous
winter visitor, .
Habits: As a resident the Common Coot is found sparingly
on all rush-bordered jseels and tanks of any size, but its numbers
are vastly increased in winter by immigrants from beyond
our borders. At that season, the birds collect in immense ‘ herds,’
and on the larger jheels of N. India great patches of water are
often literally black with their multitudes. The birds are reluc-
tant to fly, and when alarmed prefer to get aut of the way by
skittering along the water, half running half flying, and flopping
down again to swim away gracefully, the head and neck gently
bobbing with each stroke of the legs. The pattering noise
set up by the birds on a gun being fired near a packed herd
is at times positively bewildering. They are expert divers and
capable of remaining submerged for a considerable time by
holding on to water weeds below, with only the bill breaking
the surface. Their gait on land is awkward, the backwardly
situated legs necessitating a very erect posture. Although
Teluctant to fly and taking off with much pattering and apparent
labour, the birds, once under way, are capable of strong and
sustained flight. It is attained by ‘ distressingly’’ rapid wing
strokes, neck out-stretched and legs trailing behind the blunt
barrel-shaped body. A coot ringed in Indore was shot in Russia
after it had done a migratory journey of about 1,500 miles,
presumably over the Himalayas. The longest: known distance
covered by a coot in a day is 164 miles which is considerably
beyond what one would suppose possible for apparently so
feeble a flier. Their call, often heard at night, is a clear and
loud trumpet-like cry. The diet consists mainly of aquatic
insects, molluscs, shoots of water-weeds and paddy, and other
vegetation. The birds are rank and fishy to the taste and
seldom shot by sportsmen. It is remarkable how confident
they become of their safety, and how little perturbed by the
constant gun fire during a shoot which promptly sends all the duck
higher and higher or right off to another jhee?. They are, however,
largely captured and killed by the local fishermen who esteem
their flesh highly.
Nesting: The season is chiefly July-August. The nest is a large
compact mass of rushes and flags placed amongst reds, slightly above
water level. The eggs—-6 to 10—are fine-textured, and of a buffy-
stone colour stippled and spotted with reddish-brown or purplish-
black. Coots are pugnacious and quarrelsome, and intolerant of other
species nesting on the same water as themselves.
304
= The Bronze-winged Jacana
305
140. The Bronze-winged Jacana
Metopidius indicus (Latham).
Size: About that of the Partridge.
Field Characters: A leggy water-bird somewhat like the
Moorhen, with glossy black head, neck and breast, metallic
greenish-bronze back and wings, and chestnut-red stub tail. The
outstanding peculiarity of the Jacanas—this and the next species
—is their enormously elongated spider-like toes. Sexes alike
but the immature is chiefly whitish, rufous and brown. Singly
or gregariously, on ponds and tanks.
Distribution: Resident thronghout India (except Sind, the
N.-W., and W.Rajpiitana) Assim and Burma; not Ceylon.
Beyond, eastwards, it extends to the Celebes.
Habits: The Bronze-winged Jacana inhabits jicels and tanks
abounding in surface vegetation of floating water-lily, singadra
(Trapa) and other aquatic plants. Over these, its specialised,
enorinously elongated slender toes enable it to trot along with
ease. The birds are somewhat crepuscular and most active in
the early mornings and late evenings, but they are also about at
other times of the day. Where unmolested they become tame,
and on village tanks may commonly be seen in close proximity
of the chattering women folk trooping down with their pots for
water, or of the dhobi noisily banging his clothes upon the ac-
customed stone. When alarmed it sneaks off into the reeds, if
easily accessible, tripping gingerly over the tangles of floating
vegetation, Ifin the open and far from cover it lies low amongst
the floating stalks often partially submerging itself for better
concealment. If persistently harried, the birds take refuge up
on dry ground in amongst standing crops and the like, whence
they flush like Painted Snipe on being walked up to. Itis a good
diver and can also swim creditably when occasion demands, with
the carriage of a Moorhen, but it is a poor flyer. The flight,
attained by rapid, rather laboured wing-strokes is slow, with the
neck extended and the cumbersome feet dangling behind under
the tail. After a few yards thns, low above the surface, the bird
re-alights on the matted vegetation and resumes its progress on
foot. It has a peculiar short, harsh cry, and like most of its
telations becomes noisy during the breeding season. Its diet
consists of vegetable matter—seeds, roots, etc.—but insects and
molluscs are also eaten.
Nesting : Breeding commences as soon as the rains have
properly set in, and lasts from June till September. The nest
is a circular mass of roughly put-together and twisted weeds,
placed on floating leaves—often partially submerged—or amongst
the rushes on the margin, The normal clutch consists of 4 eggs,
very glossy and handsome, bronze-brown in colour with an
irregular network of black or dark-brown scrawls.
306
The Pheasant-tailed Jacana
Breeding Plumage
307
141. The Pheasant-tailed Jacana
Hydrophasianus chirurgus (Scopoli).
Size: Excluding the tail plumes, that of the Partridge.
Field Characters: A striking white and chocolate-brown
rail-like water bird with enormous feet and a distinctive, long,
pointed sickle-shaped tail. Sexes alike. In non-breeding plum-
age chiefly pale brown and white, with a black necklace on upper
breast, and minus the long tail. Gregariously—in non-breeding
season often large flocks—-on vegetation-choked tanks.
Distribution: Resident throughout the Indian Empire, up
to about 6,000 ft. in Kashmir, Beyond, eastwards, to S. China,
Philippines and Java. .
Habits: This handsome Jasgana is common on every lotus or
singdva-covered jheel, tank or swamp of any size. In general
habits it closely resembles its Bronze-winged cousin, except
perhaps that it keeps more to the open and is less skulking.
While strictly resident, the birds are forced to move about a
good deal locally, as the waters they inhabit gradually dry up
in summer, Its enormons toes are admirably adapted for a life
on floating aquatic vegetation. They help to distribute the
weight of the bird over a large area, so that it can run over the
most lightly floating leaf without producing a ripple. In the
non-breeding season these Jacanas collect in flocks of as many as
50 to roo birds, and their peculiar nasal mewing calls—‘ewn,
tewn, etc.—uttered as the birds rise in the air with a flash of their
white wings and make off on alarm, is a familiar sound to every
one who has shot duck on an Indian jhee/ in winter. At rest their
colouration at this season is obliterative in their native environ-
ment of dry floating water-lily stems and leaves. Its diet consists
of vegetable matter as well as insects and molluscs.
This species possesses a strong sharp spur at the bend of the
wing which is used as a weapon of offence. During the breeding
season, the birds indulge in a great deal of mostly innocuous
scrapping.
Nesting: The season is during the S.-W. Monsoon, principally’
June to September, The nest is a pad of rushes, etc., as of the
Bronze-winged Jacana, placed on floating vegetation. Some-
times floating rafts of dty weeds and herbage are made, while
occasionally the eggs are even laid on bare lotus or singdra leaves,
partially submerged in water. The normal clutch consists of 4
peg-top shaped eggs, glossy greenish-bronze or rufous-brown in
colour, unmarked, Apparently the female alone incubates.
When disturbed or suspicious the bird transfers the clutch bodily
from one spot to another a few yards away, pressing each egg
with the bill against her breast, crouching, walking backwards
and almost dragging it over the floating leaves.
308
HM WAMDRE KAT
The Painted Snipe
Female
309
142. The Painted Snipe
Rostratula benghalensis (Linnacus).
Size: Slightly larger than the Quail.
Field Characters: <A leggy, typical rail with long, straight
and slender snipe-like bill slightly decurved at tip. Above
chiefly metallic olive-green with buff and blackish streaks and
markings; helow chiefly brawn and white. Pale coloured
‘ spectacles ‘and a pale band along centre of crown distinctive.
The mate is less showy than the female (illustrated) and lacks the
chestnut and black on neck and breast. Singly or in wisps, in
rush-covered swainps.
Distribution : Wide—in Africa, Asia, Australia and Tasmania.
The race benghalensis occurs in Africa and thronghout the Indian
Empire up to about 5000 ft. in the Himdliyas. Resident, but
also local migrant.
Habits: The Painted Snipe affects reed-covered swamps, the
edges of jheels and tanks and also imindated paddy fields. It
loves patches with little open squelchy puddles interspersed
amongst the cover. It is a resident species but also moves about
a good deal locally with conditions affecting its habitat, snch as
the drying up of tanks or inundation of suitable low lying country.
It is largely crepuscular and much more active in the early morn-
ings and evenings—possibly even at night -than in daytime.
It usually keeps singly or in small wisps and can be flushed only
by beating the rush beds or walking up to. The flight is labonred
and rail-like with the long legs dangling behind and below the tail,
and the bird alights in the reeds after topping them for a few
yards. It is strong and swift on its legs and usually runs a good
distance through the rushes upon alighting, often soon working
its way back to where it was disturbed. It can also swim well
when occasion demands.
Its food consists of insects and molluscs as well as paddy
grains and vegetable matter. The birds call repeatedly in the
mornings and evenings. The female has a rather deep mellow
note compared by Hume to the noise produced by blowing softly
into a bottle, just falling short of a whistle. It contrasts with
the squeaky note of the male.
Nesting : The Painted Snipe breeds practically throughout the
year. The female, as in the Bustard Quail, is polyandrous. She
does all the courting and fights desperately with rivals for the
possession of a male. As soon as eggs are laid she leaves him to
incubate them and tend the young when hatched, going off her-
self in search of another unattached male who is similarly landed
with family responsibilities, The nest is a pad of grass or rushes
with a slight depression in the centre. 1 is placed on the ground
in grass on the edge of a marsh or on bands separating inundated
fields. The eggs—-3 or 4--are some shade of yellowish stone
colour, blotched and streaked with brown.
310
The Sarus Crane
gtr
143. The Sarus Crane
Antigone antigone (Linnaeus).
Size: Larger than the Vulture. Standing the height of a man.
Field Characters; A large grey stork-like bird with long bare
red legs and naked red head and neck. Sexes alike. Usually
pairs—stalking about cultivation and marsh land.
Distribution ; The typical race autigone is resident in Northern
and Central India, Giajerft and W. Assim. Eastern Assim and
Burma are occupied by the race sharpei which differs in being
darker, and in other details.
Habits: The Sarns—the largest of our Indian cranes—is
essentially a bird of open well-watered plains. It is most often
_met with in and about cultivation, but it also frequents shallow
marsh-bordered jheels and river banks, The birds almost inva-
tiably keep, in pairs, periodically accompanied by one or two
young, and flocks are rare. They pair for life and their devotion
to each other has earned them a degree of popular sentiment
amounting to sanctity. If one bird is killed the survivor of the
pair will haunt the scene of the outrage for weeks calling «lis-
tractedly, and las even been known to pine away and die of grief.
They are zealously protected by the inhabitants in many parts
with the result that the birds become tame and confiding and will
stalk about and feed unconcernedly within a few yards of the
cultivators working in their fields.
They rise off the ground with some difficulty, but when once
fairly launched, the flight—attained by slow rhythmical strokes
of their great wings, neck extended, legs trailing behind—is swift
and powerful thongh seldom more than a few yards above the
ground. They have loud, sonorous, far-reaching trumpet-like
calls which are uttered both from the ground and in flight.
During the breeding season the pair indulges in peculiar ludicrous
dancing displays and caperings, spreading their wings and
prancing and leaping in the air round each other. .
Their diet consists of grain, shoots and other vegetable matter
as well as insccts, molluscs and reptiles.
Nesting: ‘The season ranges principally between July and
December. The nest is a huge mass of reeds, rushes and straw
-—about 3 feet in diameter at the top—bnilt on the ground in the
midst of flooded paddy fields, swamps or shallow jheels, Usually
2 eggs are laid, pale greenish- or pinkish-white in colour, some-
times spotted and blotched with brown or purple.
Incubation is apparently carried on mainly by the female,
but the male takes occasional turns at brooding. He guards the
nest vigilantly throughout the period, and assists in tending the
young.
312
The Demoiselle Crane
313
144. The Demoiselle Crane
Anthropoides virgo (Linnaeus).
Size: Considerably smaller than the Sarus, standing about
3 feet high.
Field Characters: A long-legged grey bird with the sides of
the head and neck black, the feathers of the lower neck long and
lanceolate and falling over the breast. Conspicuous pure white
ear-tufts behind the eyes. Sexes alike. Large flocks in young
crops—gram, wheat, etc. Winter visitor. :
The Common Crane (Grus g. lilfordi)—the kalam of sports-
men—somewhat larger and with a distinctive red patch on the
nape, also visits India in enormous numbers during winter,
commonly associating with the present species.
Distribution : Within our limits the Demoiselle ranges in
winter commonly throughout Northern India and down to
Mysore. South of the Deccan, it is rare. It also visits Assim
and the greater part of Burma.
Habits: The Demoiselle Crane—zoonj as it is known to shikdris
—arrives in the plains of India in vast hordes in about October
and departs again by the end of March. The birds frequent
open cultivated country to feed on the tender shoots of wheat,
gram and other cold weather crops in flocks which often number
hundreds. During the middle of the day they usually retire to
the flat shelving shores and sandbanks of the larger rivers and
jheeils to rest, and often spend hours flying and circling in the
air at great heights. They are excessively shy and wary birds.
While feeding or resting they post sentinels around who sound
the alarm on the slightest suspicion. The din of a great congre-
gation taking off the ground accompanied by their high-pitched
hurr, kury, hurry uttered in varying keys has been aptly likened
to the distant roaring of the sea. Both as a sporting bird and
as an item on the menu, the soon ranks very high. Its uncanny
vigilance combined with its habit of keeping to the open with
no cover at hand to aid the sportsman, calls for all his cunning
and patience in circumventing the quarry and makes it a difficult
bird to bag. Cranes fly in broad V-formation, neck and legs
extended, with a leader at the apex whose place is immediately
filled by the next bird should he happen to be shot. Their
call is a loud, musical, high-pitched trumpet which carries
enormous distances. It can be heard with amazing clarity
even when the birds are ascending in spirals, as in their wont,
so high up in the heavens as to look like midges. Their diet
consists almost entirely of shoots, grain and young crops, but
insects and small reptiles are seldom passed by.
Nesting : The Demoiselle breeds in Southern Europe and on
the high plateaux of Algeria and Central and Northern Asia
ag far east as Mongolia. Its nest is similar to that of the Sarus.
Two eggs are laid, greenish- or yellowish-grey in colour sparingly
blotched with reddish-brown and grey.
314
The Great Indian Bustard
315
145. The Great Indian Bustard
Choriotis nigriceps (Vigors).
Size; Larger than the Vulture ; standing about 4 {t. to top of crown,
and weighing up to 4o lbs.
Field Characters: A hoavy ground bird, reminiscent of a young
ostrich, with a characteristic horizontal carriage of the body at right
angles to the stout, bare legs. Deep buff above finely vermiculated
with black; white below with a broad black gorget on lower breast.
Conspicuous black-crested crown. Sexes alike, but female smaller.
Pairs or parties, in semi-desert and about cultivation.
Distribution: Punjab, portions of Sind, Cutch, Kathidwar, Raj-
pitaina, Giijerat, the greater part of Central India, Central Provinces
and the Deccan, and parts of Mysore. Absent in Bengal, Assim,
Burma and Ceylon. Resident, but also local migrant.
Habits: This magnificent bustard affects bare, open semi-desert
plains and sparse grass-covered country interspersed with low scrub
and bushes or with cultivation. It often enters standing crops which
hide it completely from view. The birds are generally met with singly
or in pairs or parties of 5 or 6, but droves of as many as 25 or 30 are
not unknown. They are usually excessively shy and wary and can
seldom be approached within gunshot except by subterfuge in the
shape of a harmless-looking bullock cart or camel to which the birds
have become inured on the countryside. They run at great speed
when disturbed and though rather heavy and slow in taking off, are
no mean fliers once well launched. The flight, rather like a vulture’s,
is attained by deliberate rhythmical strokes of the huge wings. It
is often sustained over several miles before the bird re-alights, but
never at any great height [rom the ground. Thongh a permanent
resident in India, this bustard is subject to marked seasonal local
migrations under stress of natural conditions affecting its food-supply.
Its diet consists principally of locusts, grasshoppers, beetles and other
insects, Grain and the tender shoots of various crop plants are also
eaten, as well as lizards, small snakes and centipedes.
The usual alarm call of the Great Indian Bustard has been likened
to a bark or bellow, something like Aook. In the breeding season
the cock, who is apparently polygamous, makes a great display before
his bevy of admiring hens. He struts about with neck and throat
inflated and the feathers puffed out. The tail is raised and expanded
fanwise, the wings are drooped and ruffled while he utters a low,
deep moaning call audible a considerable way off.
Nesting : Breeds practically throughout the year but chiefly between
March and September. The egg—usually a single—is laid in a shallow
depression in the ground, sometimes sparsely lined with grass, at the
base of some bush. In colour it is drab or pale olive-brown, faintly
blotched with deep brown. The female alone is said to incubate,
316
The Stone-Curlew
3'7
146. The Stone-Curlew
Burhinus aedicnemus (Linnaeus).
Size: Slightly larger than the Partridge. More leggy.
Field Characters . A brown-streaked plover-like ground bird
with thick head, long bare yellow thick-kneed legs, and enormous
round goggle eyes. In flight a white patch on wings conspicuous.
Sexes alike. Pairs or parties, in dry, open, stony country.
Distribution: -Wide—in Europe, Africa, Asia. Resident
practically throughout the Indian Empire up to about 3,000 ft.
in the Himalayas. Two races concern us, viz.: the larger and
paler Persia-Sind-Balichistan asietus, and the smaller and darker
all-India-Burma-Ceylon indicus,
Habits: The Stone-Cutlew, also known as the Thick-knee
or Goggile-eyed Plover, is a bird of much the same
type of country as the bustards—open plains and
hummocks, dry and stony, and dotted here and there with
scanty bushes and scrub. It is also found on ploughed
and fallow land and on the shingly beds of dry streams. Occa-
sionally it frequents—especially in daytime—light deciduous
jungle and mango topes, ete., near villages. The birds keep in
pairs or parties of up to 6 or 10. They are strictly ground-
living and run swiftly with short quick steps, neck outstretched
and held almost ih line with the horizontal body. They are
largely crepuscular and nocturnal in their habits and sluggish
during daytime when they may be met with resting in the shade
of bushes or under a grove of trees. When suspicious or alarmed,
the bird, after scuttling a short distance, squats low with body
pressed to the ground, head and neck extended in front. Its
colouration thus affords perfect camouflage and makes
it look exactly like a diminutive mound of earth,
even at close range. The wing-action in flight--which is
strong, and usually close to the graund—is something between
that of the bustard and the plover. Its food consists principally
of insects, worms, slugs and small reptiles with which a quantity
of grit is commonly swallowed. It is considered an excellent
bird for the table.
The call of the Stone-Curlew, mostly heard during the night—
more particularly on moonlit nights—is a series of sharp, clear
whistling ‘screams’ pick .. pick .. pick .. pick .. pich-
wick... pick-wick ... pick-wick and so on, with accent on the
second syllable. Very often duets are indulged in.
Nesting: The season ranges principally between February
and August. The eggs—usually 2—are laid in a scrape at the
base ofa bush or tuft of grass on stony ground, in a dry river bed,
mango grove or open country. They are pale buff to olive-green
in colour, boldly blotched with brownish or purplish, and remark-
ably obliterative in their surroundings. Both sexes share
in incubation and tending the young.
girs
The Indian Courser
319
147- The Indian Courser
Cursorius coromandelicus (Gmelin).
Size: About that of the Partridge.
Field Characters: A sandy-brown, lapwing-like bird with
chestnut and black underparts. Rich rufous crown; a black
and a white stripe through and above eyes; :Jong bare china-
white legs. Sexes alike. Singly, scattered pairs or parties,
tunning about on fallow land and semi-desert.
Distribution: Throughout the drier portions of India and
in North Ceylon. Absent in Assim and Burma, Largely
replaced in N. Sind and N.-W. Punjab by the Palearctic cream
coloured species Cursorius cursor without the chestnut and
black underparts. Resident, but also local migrant.
Habits: The Indian Courser inhabits bare stony plains, fallow
and waste land adjoining cultivation, and ploughed fields. It
avoids forest. It is met with in scattered pairs or parties of up
to 10 or 12 individuals which spend their time running about
swiftly, and dipping forward obliquely now and again in a charac-
teristic manner to pick up some insect. When alarmed or
suspicious the bird spurts forward a few yards with short rapid
steps, halts abruptly and erects itself to survey the intruder,
makes wnother spurt, and so on, quickly increasing the distance
between itself and the object of its suspicion. If pressed, it
rises with a peculiar note and flies fairly low along the ground for
fifty or a hundred yards, commencing to run again immediately
on alighting. When thoroughly disturbed, however, itrises higher
in the air with deliberate and rapid wing-strokes and is then
capable of a considerable turn of speed. Its action and appear-
ance in flight high overhead is strongly reminiscent of the
Pratincoles. Its food consists of insects and their larve, princi-
pally beetles, crickets and grasshoppers. The birds move about
locally to some extent under pressure of natural conditions
governing their food supply.
The Courser is another good example of the effectiveness of
obliterative colouration in animals living in bare open country.
1t is remarkable how invisible this bird can become in its native
environment until betrayed by movement.
Nesting: The season is mainly between March and August.
The eggs—z or 3—are deposited either in a shallow scrape or
on the bare ground, with no semblance of a nest, in arid open
plains. They are broad, stone-coloured ovals thickly spotted
and blotched with black. Both the eggs and the newly hatched
young are beautifully colour-camouflaged and are extremely
' difficult to locate except by a careful watching of the parents’
behaviour and movements.
320
The Black-headed or Laughing Gull
Summer plumage
321
148. The Black-headed or Laughing Gull
Larus ridibundus Linnaeus.
Size: Abont that of the Jungle-Crow.
Field Characters: A typical gull, grey above white. below,
with a dark coffee-coloured head in summer. In winter-—the sea-
son when the birds are mostly in our midst—the head is greyish-
white with a vertical crescent-shaped black mark behind the ear.
The pointed bill and duck-like webbed feet are ved (wrongly
colouredon plate). Sexesalike. Distinguishable from the equally
common Brown-headed Gull (L. brunnicephaius) with which it
often associates, by its first primary wing-quill being white with
black edges and tip, whereas in that species it is black with a white
subterminal band. Gregariously, along the sea-coasts and about
large jheels and rivers inland.
Distribution: Breeding in Temperate Europe and Western and
Central Asia. Winter visitors to India south to Travancore.
Habits: The Black-headed or Laughing Gull begins to arrive
in India in Angust or September and by the middle of April most
birds have again left for their breeding grounds. They are found
in small numbers on large inland jheels and rivers, but more
abundantly along the seaboard. Here they commonly frequent
harbours, flying and circling about the ships riding at anchor,
following in the wake of outgoing vessels for considerable dis-
tances out to sea, and escorting incoming ones back to port.
Their food here consists mainly of any refuse or garbage cast
overboard and floating on the surface which they swoop upon
and pick up witb their bills, often alighting on the water and
riding buoyantly like a duck. For these scraps they have
usually to compete with Brahminy and Pariah Kites which are
also present about the docks in numbers. Gulls likewise affect
the vicinity of fishing villages along the coast. They follow the
fishing boats returning with the catch, eagerly scanning the water
for any worthless fry that may be thrown overboard. The
birds reap a rich harvest of such fare where the fishermen clean
and dry their nets on the beach. In inland localities they also
eat insects, grubs, snails, slugs and the shoots of various crops.
They never dive for their food as the terns do.
This Gull has a number of loud raucous calls. The ones
most commonly heard have been described as a querulous scream
kvee-ah and a loud wailing ka-yek, ha-yek.
Nesting: In Europe from April onwards in large colonies running
into hundreds, on sandhills, marshes and heather-covered dry hills.
The nests, built on the ground close to one another, vary froma
sparsely-lined scrape to a well-made massive structure of weeda, grass,
‘etc. Three eggs form the normal clutch. They are light stone to
dark brown in ground colour, spotted and blotcheil with deep blackish-
brown and purplish. :
322
149. The River Tern
Sterna aurantia Gray.
Size: About that of the Pigeon, but much shmmer.
Fieid Characters: A slender, graceful grey and white water bird
with long, pointed wings, deeply forked swallow-tail, very short red/
legs and pointed yellow bill. The black cap of the summer plumage
(iHustrated) is replaced in winter by greyish-white flecked and streaked
with black at nape. Sexes alike. Gregarionsly, ou rivers and jheels,
usually flying np and down,
The Black-bellied Tern (Sterva melanogaster) is another common
species on inland rivers and tanks, while the Gulbbilled Tern
(Gelochelidon nilotica) is found commonly both inland and on the sea-
coast, It is distinguishable from most other terns by its black hill,
logs and feet.
Distribution: Throughout Lndia and Burma -and beyond, in
Malaya-—on all large rivers.
Habits: The River Tern, as its name implies, is found chiefly on
inland rivers and to some extent also on jheels. It is rare on tidal
estuaries and never met with on the soa-coust. Here it is replaced
by several other species, all differing in details but bearing the untis-
takable stamp of the tribe. The birds are found singly, in small loose
parties, and gregariously rather than in flocks. They fly to and fra
a few yards above the surface with deliberate heats of their long,
slender and pointed wings. ‘The bill and eyes are directed below and
intently scanning the water for any fish venturing within striking
depth, rom time io time as the quarry comes into view the bird
closes its wings and hurls itself headlong into the water becoming
completely submerged for a second or so, then reappearing with a small
fish held across the bill. As it resumes its flight, the victim is jerked
up in the air and swallowed head foremost. It is pretty to watch a
party of terns following a shoal of fish, plunging into the water one
after another with a splash, swallowing their victims hurriedly, wheeling
and circling masterfully in the air to keep up with the escaping shoal
and repeating the attack again and again. While their staple dict is
fish they also eat small crustacea, tadpoles and aquatic insects. When
satiated, the birds may be seen resting on mudbanks on their ridicul-
ously short legs, A peculiar habit of the terns is that when one bird
drops to a shot, 2 or 3 others will promptly follow suit and dive down
almost instinctively along with him. At the same time large numbers
will gather at the spot, flying and circling overhead to investigate.
This is donbtless because the unwounded birds think their companion
has discovered same food and are anxious to share the spoils.
Nesting: The season is chiefly between March and May. River
Terns nest in colonies on sandpits and islets in the larger rivers, in
mixed association with Pratincoles, varions plovers and terns of other
species. The eggs—normally 3—are laid on the bare sand in a slight
depression. ‘They vary in ground colour from greenish-grey to buily-
stone and are spotted, blotched and streaked with brown and inky
purple. The restless flying about of the birds over the observer's
head, and their obvious concern, usually gives away the presence of
nests on a particular islet. :
324
The Little Ringed Plover
325
150. The Little Ringed Plover
Charadrius dubius Scopoli.
Size; Slightly smaller than the Quail.
Field Characters: A typical little plover with thick head, bare
longish legs and short stout bill. Sandy-brown above, white below,
White forehead; black fore-crown, earcoverts and around eyes; a
black collar round the white neck. Sexes alike. Pairs or small
scattered flocks, on tank margins, shingle banks in rivers, etc.
Distribution : Practically throughout the Indian Empire up to
about 4,000 ft. in the Himalayas—and beyond, east and west. We
are concerned with two races whose validity infer se is, however, rather
doubtful, viz., the larger, European, winter visitor curonicus, and the
smaller, resident jerdoni.
Habits: The Little Ringed Plover is essentially a bird of damp,
open mudflats on the margins of jheels and estuaries, the beds of drying
up tanks and the shingle banks and sandpits of rivers. It keeps in
scattered pairs or parties of 5 to 12. The birds run along the ground
with short mincing steps, halting after every little spurt to pick up some
insect or other tit-bit with the peculiar dipping movement charac-
teristic of the plovers. They have a curious habit, when feeding on
soft wet mud, of drumming with their tocs in a rapid vibratory motion
in order to dislodge insects, sand-hoppers and tiny crabs lurking in
their burrows, In their accustomed environment their colouration
is remarkably obliterative, and it is often with the greatest difficulty
that a bird can be located as long as it remains motionless. Although
the individuals keep scattered and feed independently of one another,
yet as soon as one bird takes alarm and rises, the rest follow suit and
they all fly off together, twisting and wheeling in the air in unison and
constantly uttering a short rather plaintive whistle phiu as they go.
The flight, attained by rapid strokes of the pointed wings is swift,
but seldom more than a few feet above the ground.
The courtship display of the Little Ringed Plover is a long and
varied affair. At one stage, it consists, in the male determinedly
chasing the female round and round iu the air for several minutes at
atime. <A later development, just before mating takes place, com-
prises of his fanning out and rapidly vibrating his tail up and down
while his bill almost caresses the female, and he prances lightly and
quickly from one foot to the other.
Nesting: The season ranges between March and May. The eggs—
4,in number—are laid among the shingle and on sandbanks in a dry
river bed. They harmonise so perfectly with their surroundings that
they are often difficult to locate even when near enough to be trampled
onl They are of the typical shape of plover eggs, broad at one end
and abruptly pointed at the other. The colour varies from buffish-
stone to greenish-grey with hieroglyphic-like scrawls and spots of dark
brown, and phantom purple markings. Both sexes share in the
incubation. .
326
The Red-wattled Lapwing
327
151. The Red-wattled Lapwing
Lobivanellus indicus (Boddaert).
Size: Slightly larger than the Partridge; more leggy and with a
longer neck.
Field Characters: <A familiar plover, bronze-brown above white
below, with black face, breast and crown and a crimson wattle or
fleshy projection above and in front of eacli eye. Sexes alike. Well-
known Did-he-do-it ? calls. Pairs or small parties, in open country
near water.
Distribution: Resident practically thronghout the Indian Empire
up to about 6,000 ft. in the Himflayas and peninsular hills. Three
races are recognized, viz., the larger and doubtfully paler Sind-
Balichistin aigneri, the all-India-Ceylon indicus, and the Assim-
Burma arionuchalis with somewhat different head markings.
Habits: The Red-wattled Lapwing is our commonest and most
familiar plover. It haunts open country, ploughed fields and grazing
land, and is almost invariably present on the margins and beds of
jheels and tanks whence the water has lately receded. Pairs or parties
of 3 or 4 birds are also usually to be met with in forest glades and
clearings. Here they are often a source of great annoyance to the
shikari, ruining his stalk by their uncanny and ceaseless vigilance and
giving away his presence to the sanibhar or other quarry grazing
in the open by their frantic calls and agitated behaviour.
They spend their time rnnning about on the ground in short spurts,
feeding in the typical plover manner on insects, grubs, molluscs, etc.,
and seem to be quite as active and wide awake at night as during
daytime. Its ordinary flight is slow, attained by deliberate flaps
of the wings. The bird alights again after a short distance, usually
running a few steps on doing so. When thorouglily scared, however,
it is capable of considerable speed and much dextrous turning and
twisting on the wing.
its call is the all-too-familiar, loud and penetrating Did-he-do-it 2
or Pity-to-do-it uttered either placidly or frantically, just once or twice
or repeatedly, depending upon the intensity of the prevailing emotion.
Nesting: The season is principally between March and August.
The nest is merely a natural depression or scrape in the ground, unlined,
sometiines margined with pebbles. It is situated on waste or fallow
land, more or less water-logged in the rains and with deep imprints of
cattle hoofs. The drying-up beds of village tanks alsa offer suitable
sites. The eggs—normally 4, broad at one end, abruptly pointed
at the other-—are some shade of stone or grey-brown in colour, blatched
with blackish. They, as well as the newly hatched downy young
harmonise with the soil to perfection and it is difficult to locate the eggs
or chicks even in a circumscribed area except by patiently watching the
movements of the parents. Both sexes guard the young assiduously
and launch fierce attacks upon other birds and mammals straying into
their proximity.
328
The Yellow-wattled Lapwing
329
1§2. The Yellow-wattled Lapwing
Lobiplauvia malabarica (Boddaert).
Size: About that of the Partridge ; more leggy.
Field Characters: A sandy-brown plover with white belly,
black cap and bright yellow lappets above and in front of the
eyes. In flight, a white bar conspicuous on the black wings.
Sexes alike. Pairs or small parties, on dry waste land.
Distribution: Throughout India, from the base of the Himf-
layas south, and Ceylon. Not in Upper Sind, Western Punjab,
Assim or Burma. Resident, but partly also local migrant.
Habits: The Yellow-wattled Lapwing inhabits more or less
the same type of open country—plains, waste and fallow land—
as the preceding species, but with this consistent difference that
it prefers drier habitats and is less dependent upon the neigh-
bourheod of water. It is met with in pairs or small scattered
parties, and except that it is on the whole not so noisy or demon-
strative as its Red-wattled cousin there is little appreciable
difference between the general habits of the two.
Its call, however, is entirely distinctive and bears no resem-
blance to that of the Did-he-do-it. It is a sharp, plaintive,
bisyllabic &-¢é uttered every two ur three seconds, aud punctuated
from time to time by a high-pitched, quick-repeated éwit-twit-
twit-tienrt,
Nesting: The season is mainly between April and July.
The eggs are laid on the bare earth or in a shallow, unlined
scrape sometimes surrounded by a cirele or parapet of pebbles
or kankar. The nest is usually situated on dry open waste
land. The eggs—4 in number and of the usual plover’s shape-—
are buff to olive-stone in colour, irregularly blotched with dark-
brown and purplish-grey. They, as well as the newly hatched
downy chicks, harmonise with the soil so effectively as to be
completely invisible even at a few feet’s distance. (Vlate, p. 91).
The parent birds demonstrate in the same frantically vocal
manner as the foregoing species when their nest or young are
approached, circling close overhead in great agitation and often
making as if to strike the intruder.
33°
The Biack-winged Stilt
33°
153. The Black-winged Stilt
Himantopus himaniopus (Linnaeus).
Size: About that of the Partridge, but with bare slender
legs ro inches long.
Field Characters: A striking lanky wading bird of black,
greyish-brown and white plumage, and with a straight slender
black bill. Its most striking feature is the enormous Jength
of its thin reddish legs. The summer and winter phimages
differ in details, as also does the summer plumage of the male and
female. Pairs or flocks, wading in shallow water at the edge of
tanks, &e.
Distribution: Wide—in Europe, Africa, Asia, America, Anstralia
and New Zealand. Throughout India, Burma and Ceylon in winter.
Resident and breeding in many parts of North and North-western
India and Ceylon, Also local migrant.
Habits: The Black-winged Stilt is essentially a marsh bird,
well-equipped for obtaining its livelihood in shallow water.
It is usually met with in pairs or small flocks wading up to its
‘knees ' on the margins of jAeels, village tanks, and shallow salt
pans. It is sametimes seen even in ploughed inundated tields-
bnt never on the seashore. As it goose-steps along in the water,
it probes into the soft squelchy mud with its slender Dill for worms,
molluscs, aquatic insects and seeds of water plants which form
its food. On the ground the bird walks and runs well and
gracefully, and it can also swim creditably on occasion.
The fthght is weak and flapping. The pied colouration and
slender build of the bird, coupled with the extended neck and
the long red legs trailing behind the tail make its identity ou
the wing unmistakable, even at a distance. When alarmed
and flying off, the birds utter a rather squeaky piping note.
While largely a resident species, the Stilt is subject to marked
local migrations under stress of natural conditions such as droughts
and heavy floods,
Nesting : The season is principally between April and August.
Stilts nest in colonies, often of several hundred individuals.
The nest is a hollow or depression in the ground about the margin
of a gherl, or a raised platform of Aankary in shallow salt-pans,
lined with vegetable scum off the water, grass, or such other
odds and ends ay can be procured. The normal clutch consists of
3 Or 4 eggs, light drab in colour densely blotched with black.
In size, shape and appearance they closely resemble the eggs
of the Red-wattled Lapwing.
brooding birds are not shy and permit a close approach
before they desert their nests. Once off, however, they become
agitated and noisy, circling over the intruder’s head with loud
cries all the time until he withdraws.
332
The Avocet
333
154. The Avocet
Recurvirostra avocella Linnaeus.
‘Size: Slightly larger than the Partridge, and more leggy.
Field Characters: A black-and-white marsh bird, rather
like the Stilt in the distance, with long bare bluish. -wot reddish
—legs and slender, black, conspicuonsly upeurved bill. Sexes
alike. Pairs or parties on marshes, jheels and sea-coast, expecially
tidal crecks.
Distribution : In winter the typical race avocetia is uot un-
common in Northern India, and extends in smaller numbers
throughout the peninsula east to Bihar and south to Ceylon.
Itis absent in Assim and Burma.
Habits: The Avocct is a winter visitor to the plains and
western seahoard of India, arriving in our midst ahout September
and departing hy the middle of May. Pairs and small parties
are usually seen along the margins of jheels, marshes, tidal
creeks and mud-flats where the birds spend their time actively
running about on marshy ground or wading with slow deliberate
steps into shallow water in search of food. Large flocks of a
hundred birds or more may also occasionally be met with. Its
diet consists of aquatic insects, small crustacca, worms, Kc.
The feeding with the curiously shaped bill is effected as follows :
the bil is partly opened and directed against the ground obliquely
—tather as a hockey stick is held in play-. so that the curved
part skims the squelchy semi-liquid mud. It is then moved with
a back and fore rotatory churning motion-taking in the food.
The toes of the Avocet are partly webbed and enable it
to swim with ease when occasion demands. Its call note is a
clear, loud, rather high-pitched A/wuit uttered several times in
snecession, usually on the wing.
Nesting: ‘he Avocet breeds in temperate Europe and Asia—
but nowhere within Indian limits—from April onwards, im-
mediately on return from its winter quarters. The nest and
site are very like those of the Stilt—a depression sumetimes
lined with grass, &c., on low-lying marshy ground and the margins
of jheels. The egys—usually 4 in a clutch—also closely resemble
those of the Stilt.
334
The Curlew
335
1§5. The Curlew
Numentus arquata (Linnaeus).
«Size: About that of the domestic hen.
Field Characters: A darkish sandy-brown wading bird,
streaked with black and fulvous to produce a‘ game bird pattern,’
with white lower back and rnmp. Its most characteristic feature
is the downcurved slender bill 5 or 6 inelhes long. Sexes alike.
Singly or small parties, on jheels, rivers and the seashore.
The Whimbrel (Numenius pheopus), a close relative of
the Curlew and very similar to it in appearance and habits,
is also a winter visitor to India and found in identical habitats.
It is distinguishable by its somewhat smaller size and the presence
of a conspicuous whitish median streak on the dark crown.
The call it utters in flight is a musical fetti, tetti, fetti, tet. As
a tule it keeps in larger flocks than the Curlew.
Distribution : The Eastern race orientalis winters commonly
throughout India, Burma and Ceylon. The typical (European)
form, avquaia, also occurs asa casual winter visitor,
Habits: The Curlew is a winter visitor to India, arriving
in September and leaving again for its breeding grounds by the
beginning or middle of April. In winter it is found in small
numbers—singly, pairs or small parties—about jheels, marsh-
land and rivers, but it is rather more plentiful along our sea-
coasts. Ifere the birds may be seen running abont or stalking
along the shore at low tide, or on the mudbanks of tidal creeks,
picking up what they can find on the surface or probing into
the soft ooze with their bills, in search of food. Its diet varies
according to the tocality it frequents, consisting chiefly of
molluscs, crustaceans, insect larva as well as vegetable matter
such as berries of marsh plants, grass shoots and seaweed. It is
active and on the move more or less throughout the day and
night. The call of the Curlew, usually uttered in flight, is a
loud, plaintive scream—-a shrill coor-lee or ctr-lew—quite
characteristic and unmistakable when once heard. The bird
is at all times inordinately shy and wary—very difficult to
approach or circumvent. It is songht after by sportsmen and
highly estcemed as an article fur the table.
Nesting : The Curlew breeds in Northern and Central Europe
to Siberia from April to June. The eggs—4 in number—are
laid in a scantily-lined depression on moors and marshland.
They are pyriform in shape, i.¢., broud at one end, abruptly
pointed at the other as in the plovers, grey-green to olive-brown
in colour freely spotted and blotched, more densely round the
broad end,
336
one HAANORERAR.
The Wood or Spotted Sandpiper
337
:
156. The Wood or Spotted Sandpiper
Tringa glereola Linnaeus.
Size: About that of the Quail.
Field Characters: A little, snipe-like wading bird, sepia brown
above indistinctly spotted and marked with white. Lower back and
rump white. Breast pale brownish. Whitish stripe above rye: The
summer (breeding) phimage is brighter with the spots and markings
more defined. Sexes alike. . Singly or small flocks, about jheels,
marshes, etc.
‘Two other sandpipers need mention: The Green (Uringa echropis)
and the Common (7. Aypolencvs), The former is distinguishable from
the Wood Sandpiper by its somewhat larger size and the bronze-green
gloss on its npper parts. In flight its white Tump and tail are con-
spicuous and it utters a low whistling //-t2/ as it rises and flies off. The
Common Sandpiper is of the same size as the Wood Sandpiper but
with a brown rump and only the outer tail feathers white. A white
wing-bar is diagnostic in ight, which is accomplished by peculiar
rapid but stiff wing-strokes, and close over water. It utters tre-tee-tee
as it makes off,
The Redshank (Vringa tofanus) and Greenshank (Gloltis acbularia)
are also common on marshes, jéeels and tidal creeks during winter.
They are both larger than the sandpipers (less than Partridge) but
unmistakably of the tribe. Both have long, bare, slender legs
red and olive-green respectively—and straight slender bills. In the
Greenshank this is slightly upturned. Singly, parties or flocks ;
Greenshanks less gregarious. Both utter a sharp feee-diwee-tiwee or
lew-lew-tew as they Ny.
Distribution ; In winter practically throughout India, Burma
and Ceylon.
Habits: The Wood or Spotted Sandpiper is one of the most abundant
of the numerous snipe-like birds, popularly known as " Snippets,”
to be found in winter abort every "jheel, village tank, river, inundated
ploughed field and marsh in India. Lt commences to arrive in our
midst as early as August and stays on till May. EELS satisfactorily
defines the term ‘Suippet’ as inckiding any bird which purports to
be a snipe and is net a snipe! Such birds often form an inadvertently
large proportion of the tyro snipe-shooter’s bag, but with a little
practice there is no excuse for confusing the two. Lor one thing the
snipe always rises with a very characteris’ rather harsh, seape ur
pench, while in the sandpipers or snippets this takes some form of shrill
piping notes. The white rump and barred brown-and-white tail
of the Wood Sandpiper, conspicuous in flight, will Cornish lurther
evidence of its lowly identity.
Wood Sandpipers collect into parties and tlocks much more
freely than do the other species. The birds run about actively on the
soft mud wagping their diminutive tails up and down --and with then
the posterior part of their body --picking up what they can on the
surface and probing into tho syuelchy coze with their bills for insects,
larva, worms, small molluscs and the like. This species is principally
a marsh bird, and though found about tidal creeks, salt-pans anel back-
water paddy cultivation, it is seldom, if ever, seen on the seashore.
Nesting: The Wood Sandpiper breeds during May and June in
Europe and N. Asia. Its nest is a scantily-lined depression in some dry
elevated patch in open marshy, grass-covered locilities.
338
The Little Stint
, 339
157. The Little Stint
Erolia minuta (Leisler).
Size: About that of the Honse-Sparrow.
*Fieid Characters: A diminutive wader, mottled greyish-
brown or dusky above, white below, with blackish legs and bill.
Sexes alike, but summer (breeding) plumage ricller—more black
and rufous. Flocks, by jheels, tanks and on: tidal mudflats.
Temminck’s Stint (Evolia temminckii)—also of the same size
and habits and a common winter visitor—is frequently found in
association with the Little Stint. It is somewhat darker above
and with the outer tail feathers white instead of brownish. Legs
olive-green, The shaft of its first primary wing-quill is white, the
rest of the shafts brown ; in minuta the shafts of all primaries are
more or less white.
Distribution ; In winter throughout the Indian Empire. Two races
visit us, viz. : the typical minufa from N. Enrope and_C. Siberia to
India and Ceylon, and the rufous-headed rujicolfis from E. Siberia and
Japan to Burma and the Andamans.
Habits: The Little Stint is a common winter visitor to India,
atriving in our midst about August and departing again for its
northern breeding grounds by May. It is a sociable little wader
and often collects in large flocks, usually mixed with the closely
related Temminck’s Stint, Dunlins, and other gregarious
shore-birds. It is found inland as well as along the sea-
board, frequenting the edges of tanks, marshland, mudflats
in the vicinity of tidal creeks, and the seashore. The members
of the flocks spread themselves out when feeding but never stray
very far from one another. They are incessantly on the move,
Tunning about with agility and picking up tiny insects, crusta-
ceans and molluscs which form their food. When disturbed, the
flock flies off swiftly in orderly mass formation, turning and
twisting in unison, the white undersides of the wings flashing,
all together, from time totimeas the birds wheel in the air. They
utter a soft musical wit-wit-wit or a low tr-rr as they fly. The
flock settles after a short flight and the birds resume their feeding
activity forthwith.
Nesting : The season in North-eastern Europe and Siberia is
June and July. The nest is a cup-shaped depression lined with
willow leaves, situated on grassy marshland. Four pyriform
eggs are laid, greenish to buffish-stone in colour, spotted and
blotched with reddish-brown.
The fact that by the beginning of August the birds already
commence to arrive in India indicates how hurriedly the domestic
operations have to be performed. The adult birds are the first
to arrive. The young of the year remain behind till they are
sufficiently strong to undertake the arduous journey south,
following 3 or 4 weeks later.
340
The Common or Fantail Snipe
. 34r
158. The Common or Fantail Snipe
Capella gallinago (Linnaeus).
Size: Slightly larger than the Quail.
Field Characters: An obtiteratively coloured marsh bird with
straight slender bill about 24 inches tong. Dark brown above streaked
with black, rufons and buff; whitish below. Sexes alike. Singly
or wisps, on grass-covered marshy ground, rising up suddenly with
a harsh note when disturbed, and flying off in swift zig-zags.
Another snipe, common during winter, and also featuring largely
in sportsmen’s bags is the Pintail (G. stenura). It is not easy to dis-
tinguish the two species in the field except with much practice. In
the hand it can be told by the 26 or 28 attenuated pin feathers in its
tail as against 12 or 14 normal ones in that of the Fantail.
Distribution: Wide—in Europe, Asia, Africa and America. In
winter two races visit practically the whole of the Indian Empire,
viz.: the typical gallinago from N. Europe and C. Siberia, and the
E. Asiatic raddii with white underwing coverts. This evidently is
the breeding race also of Kashmir and the Himalayas.
Habits: The Common or Fantail Snipe is an abundant winter
visitor to the Indian plains, arriving about September and teaviug
by May. It frequents squelchy paddy-fields and stubble, and marshy
reed-covered ground on the margins of jheels, brackish backwaters
and tidal creeks. The birds are usnally met with singly, but it is
not uncommon to flush them in wisps of 4 or 5 which have foregathered
in a patch with plentiful food snpply, Their colouration harmonizes
so admirably with their surroundings that it is difficult to spot a
crouching snipe, even out in the open, unless it moves. When ap-
proached or otherwise disturbed, they rise abruptly out of a tussock
of grass or rushes with a harsh characteristic note—scape or pench,
rather like the squelching of a sodden shoe—and go off at a tremendous
pace in a series of rapid zig-zags. It is this swift zig-zag flight that
gives spice to the sport of snipe-shooting and disappointing bags
to inexperienced or mediccre shots. During the heat of the day
snipe retire to cover under grass tufts and bushes bordering their
feeding grounds. They are then sluggish and usually reluctant to
fly fast or travet far. When thoroughly scared, however, and on
cool windy days they will often flush while still well out of gunshot
and rise high in the air, flying at great pace with their peculiar angular
rolling movements in a wide circle overhead, uttering the pench from
time to time and dropping to the ground again not far from where
they were flushed. They commence to feed in the open in the tate
afternoon and continue all through the night and till the sun is well
up in the morning. Their food consists of worms, larva, tiny molluscs
and the like. It is obtained by probing their long bills into the soft
mud, the presence of the quarry being detected by means of the
sensitive, thickened tip.
Nesting: The season in Kashmir is May and June. The nest
is a shallow grasslined depression in a tuft of grass on marshy land.
Four eggs form the normal clutch. They are variable in colour and
- markings, yellowish-stone or olive-green, blotched or mottled with
blackish and chocolate-brown. .
342
The Little Cormorant
343
159. The Little Cormorant
Phalacrocorax niger (Vieillot).
Size: Somewhat larger than the Jungle-Crow.
Field Characters: A shabby-looking, glistening black, stilf-tailed
water bird with stender compressed bill, sharply hooked at tip.
small white patch on throat. Sexes alike. Singly or pregariously,
at tanks and gheels, perched on trees and rocks, or swimming.
The Large Cormorant (P. carbo), frequently found in association
with this species, is of similar habits. It is about the size of the domes-
tic dack, and also black, but in the breeding season with some white
in the head and neck, and a large pateh of white on cither flank.
We have a third species of cormorant, the [nudian Shag (27.
fuscicollis), numbers of which a ommonty seen together with the
above two. In size it is intermediate between the Little and the
Large Cormorants, but otherwise very similar.
Distribution: Throughout the fnedian Empire, and beyond —
eastward ---ty Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Java, and Borneo.
Habits: ‘the Little Cormorant is commonly lound on jheels, village
tanks and the larger rivers inland, as well as on tidal creeks and
sparingly atso on the sea-coast. In the non-breeding season the
birds are met with in twos and threes or gregariously, but hardly in
closely-knit flocks, They are to be scen perched trees on overhanging
or near the water, on sandspits or islets in the shatlows or on partiatly
submerged rocks aud dead tree-stumps. They love to sit here for
honrs on end, with ontspread wings and tail, sunning themselves,
The food of this cormorant consists mostly of fish, but sometimes
frogs are also eaten. It is an accomplished swimmer and diver and
all its fishing is done below the surface. It comes up with the quarry
held crosswise in its bill and then shilts it into position for being swal-
lowed head foremost by little upward jerks of its bill On the water
it rides very low, unlike the duck, so that only its neck and the top
of its back are visible. It rises off the water with some difficulty
and much flapping, but flies strongly with rapid wing-strokes and
occasional gliding, when well under way. The neck is outstretched
and the legs extended behind under the tail. In alighting on the
water the long stiff tail is the first to break the surface, and functions
as a brake to arrest the momentum. Cormorants sometimes hunt
fish by concerted action, A party of birds hems in a shoal,
diving repeatedly with feverish energy and driving it from below
towards the shore. ‘hey close in on thetr quarry as they drive, and do
great massacre once the fish have been snecessfully manceuvred
into the shallows.
Nesting : The season in N. India is July to September ; in S$. Incia,
November to February. Little Cormorants breed in large colonies
raining into thousands, often mixed with storks, herons, shags and other
water birds (Plate, p.93). The nests are shallow platforms of twigs,
rather like crows’ nests, sometimes lined scantily with grass-raats.
They are lilt in babool and similar trees preferably standing in water,
The eggs—4 to 5 —-are pale blnish-green with a chalky surface.
344
The Darter or Snake-Bird
345
160. The Darter or Snake-Bird
Anhinga melanogaster Pennant.
‘Slze; About that of a small duck.
Field Characters: A black, cormorant-like water bird with silver-
grey streaks on the back, and brown head and neck. Chin and throat
whitish. Tail long, stiff, wedge-shaped. ‘The long and very slender
S-shaped neck, narrow head and pointed dagger-like bill are charac-
teristic featnres. Sexes alike. Singly or small loose parties, on and
about tanks and rivers,
Distribution : Throughout india, Burma and Ceylon, Eastward
throngh Inde-Chinese countries and Malay Peninsula to the Phillippines
and Celebes.
Habits: The Darter frequents streams, rivers, village tanks and
jheels, it is also found on tidal estuaries and creeks but not on the
sea-ceast. It is usnally met with singly or in twos and threes, but
large loose congregations of §0-Too birds are not uncommon where
conditions are especially favourable. As a rule they select jheels
with plenty of partially submerged trees, and are particularly fond of
clumps growing on little islets. It is an expert diver and swimmer
and spends a great deal of its time on the water, swimming about
with its body submerged and only the slender snake-like head and neck
exposed and turning this way and that. When sated, the bird perches
upright on the top of some tree or stake standing in the water or nearby,
tail and wings spread out to dry in the manner of the German cagle
before the Swastika became fashionable, Its staple food is fish. 1t
chases them under water, swimming at speed with wings held half
open and head and neck swaying back and forth in a peculiar manner,
like a javelin-thrower poising his missile. When within striking
distance, the dagger bill is shot out with lightning rapidity transhixing
the quarry, The bird now comes to the surface; a sharp backward
jerk ef the head shakes the fish off inte the air whence it is caught
between the mandibles head foremost and swallowed. A_ special
contrivance in the neck vertebrae enables the bird to dart forward
its bill as if released by a powerful spring.
When a tree overhanging a jheel on which Darters are resting
is approached, the birds often flop plumb down, one by ene, into the
water below ‘ dragging’ through the intervening branclies as if shot.
They go right under, but presently the snake-like heads reappeur at
some distance in all directions. The call note usually heard is a harsh
disyllabic croak chi-gi. In flight and other habits they closely resemble
the cormerants with whom they habitually associate.
Nesting ; ‘The scason in N. India is June to August; in S. India
November to February. The Darter nests in mixed colonies with
cormorants, storks, herons and ether water birds. Its nests are flat
platforms of twigs built in trees standing in or near water. The
eggs—3 or 4—are greatly elongated in shape, only slightly more pointed
atone end. ‘They are pale grecnish-blue with a whitish chalky coating.
346
The Spoonbill
347
161. The Spoonbill
Platalea lencorodia Linnaeus.
Size: Rather larger than the domestic duck.
Field Characters: A lJong-necked, long-legged snow white marsh
bird with hlack legs and a distinctive large blavk-and-yellow spatula-
shaped bill. A long full nuchal crest during the breeding season.
Sexes alike. Parties on marshy ground.
Distribution: The Indian race, major, is fonnd thronghont the
plains of India, Burma and Ceylon. Beyond, it extends west to
Mesopotamia east to Japan.
Habits : The Spoonbill affects marshes, jheels, sandbanks in rivers
and also tidal mudflats. It is usnally met with in flocks of 10 to 20
hirds keeping to themselves, but also consorting lousely with ibises,
storks and other marsh haunting species. ‘They spend the middle
of the day resting on the margin of a gheel or on a sandbank, and are
much more active in the evenings when they repair to their feeding
grounds in a diagonal single file, each bird a little behind and to one
side of the one ahead of it. The flight is rather slow with steady
long wing-strokes-- neck and legs extended--and often at a cousi-
derable height. Their food consists of tadpoles, frogs, inollnscs and
insects, but they also.eat a great deal of vegetable matter. To a large
extent the birds are nocturnal in their feeding habits. A ‘herd’
wades into shallow water on a marsh, and with outstretched necks
and obliquely poised partly open bills they sweep from side to side
with a scythe action raking the squelehy mud with the tip of the lower
mandible. The compact, eager, jostling herd moves forward almost
at a ruo when feeding. Iv this manner the birds wark restricted
patches methodically, up and down and back again. Their intense
activity is punctuated by intermittent panses of rest during which
the entire herd stands listless in one spot with apparently no further
interest in food.
Like storks-—but unlike cranes—the Spoonbill possesses no true
organs uf voice production. The only sound it occasionally emits is a
low grunt.
Nesting : The season varies witli locality and monsoon conditions,
but is principally between August and November. The birds nest in
colonies, as a rule more or less by themselves but sometimes also in
company with colonics of herons, ibises and storks. The nest is a
tather massive stick platform built on the top or on the ontside branches
of trees standing in or on the edge of a jheel—frequently on the out-
skirts of a village. ‘The same site and nests, repaired if necessary,
are uscd year after year. The normal clutch is of 4 eggs, rather a
sullied white in colonr, sparingly spotted and blotched with deep
reddish-brown chicfly at the broader end.
In the newly-hatched chick the hill is fleshy-pink and of the
normal shape. It soon thickens, however, sradually becoming bulbous
at the tip with a slight decurvation. Not till the young is completely
feathered does the bil] attain the characteristic ‘ spoon’ shape.
348
The White Ibis
349
162. The White Ibis
Lhreskiornis melanocephalus (Latham).
Size: About that of’a large domestic hen,
Field Characters: <A large white marsh bird with naked
black head and neck, and long black, curved, curlew-like bill,
There is some slaty-grey near the shoulders, and. the tips of the
primary quills are brownish. In the breeding season there are
elongated white feathers round the base of the neck aud plumes
on the upper breast. Young birds (as shown in plate) have
the neck and part of the head feathered. Sexes alike. Parties
or flocks, on marshy lind.
Distribution : ‘Phronghout the plains of India, Burma and Ceylon.
Beyond, eastward through China to South Japan. Rerident, but also
local migrant.
Habits: A near relation of the Spoonbill, the White [bis
resembles it closely in general habits and habitat. It frequents
jheels, tanks and rivers in the vicinity of which it is usually met
with in small parties or moderate sized flocks on marshes, water-
logged grassland and paddy stubble. Jere the birds feed in
company with storks and other marsh birds. They are active
on their legs walking about gracefully on the soft mud in search
of food which consists principally of molluscs, crustaceans, insects,
worms, frogs, &e. When disturbed off the ground, they frequently
alight on trees. The flight, in which the long bill and neck are
extended in front and the legs behind, is strong and direct. It
is attained by a series of steady rapid wing-strokes punctuate
hy very short glides. ‘The birds usually ily in V-formation.
Like the storks and the Spoonbill, ibises lack true voice organs.
They are silent except during the breeding scason when the
present species is said toa produce a ‘loud booming call’. Bates,
however, has recently deseribed the noises produced by breeding
birds as a series of peculiar ventriloqual grunts, not loud but
vibrant. When heard in the distance, emanating from a number
af birds at the same time, he likens the sound to the mumble of
many people talking together.
Though a permanent resident in localities with perennial
water, the White Ibis elsewhere moves about a good deal locally
under stress of natural conditions such as drought and floods.
Nesting : The season in North India is June to August; in
South India and Ceylon November to February. White Ibises
uest in small colouies, often in assaciation with storks, herons and
other marsh birds. (Plate p. 151) The nestis a flat platform of sticks
usually unlined—built in threes standing in or near water, some-
times on the outskirts of a village. The eggs-..2 to 4 in number
---are bluish- or greenish-white either unmarked or with delicate
spots of yellowish-brown,
35°
The Black Ibis
35
163. The Black Ibis
Pseudibis papilosa (Temm. & Laug).
Size: ‘About that of a large domestic hen. Slightly smaller
than the White Ibis.
Field Characters: A large distinctive black bird with slender,
eurlew-like curved bill, a conspicuous white patch near the
shoulder (not shown in the plate !) and brick-red legs. A trian-
gular patch of red warts on the top of the naked black head.
Pairs or small flocks, in open country—usually sof marshland.
Another bird rather similar in appearance to the Black
Ubis but smaller, glistening blackish and chestnut, with stenderer
bill and feathered head is the Glossy [bis (Plegadis faleinellus).
it is a resident species in India, but moves abont a good deal
locally. It is essentially marsh-haunting like the White Ibis.
Distribution : Plains of North India, south to Mvsore. Not
on the West Coast or in Ceylon. Sparingly in Assim and the
drier parts of Burma-—and through Siam = to Cochin-China.
Resident.
Habits: The Blaele [bis is a bird of open plains country on the
outskirts of cultivation where it keeps in small partics of 3 or 4
and flocks of up to 8 or 10 individnals. Though frequently found
in the neighbourhood of jheels and rivers, its existence is by no
means bound up with the presence of water. As a tule it
does not feed on marshy ground, but prefers the dry margins
higher up, and the surrounding fallow and stubble fickis. Its
food consists principally of insects and grain, but small reptiles
are also eaten on occasion. The birds keep to favoured localities
and have accustomed roots in favourite trees to which they
tesort nightly. ‘They fly in V-formation by a series of steady
wing-strokes alternated with short glides. They are silent birds
on the whole. A loud screaming cry of 2 or 3 notes, reminiscent
the Ruddy Sheldrake’s, is uttered mostly on the wing.
Nesting: The season is ill-defined ranging between March and
October in North India; November-Decembcr in the south,
The Black [bis does not, normally, nest in colonies or in company
with other birds, hut sometimes 2 or 3 nests of its own specics
may be found in the same tree. The nest is a large cup-shaped
structure of twigs lined with straw, feathers, &c. It is placed
high up in a tree generally away from water. Sometimes an old
eagle or vuiture nest is utilised. The eggs—z to 4 in number-—
are bright pale green in colour, either unmarked or with spots
and streaks of brown.
352
The White Stork
353
164. The White Stork
Ciconia ciconia (Linnacus).
Size: About that of the Vulture, but standing nearly 3} ft.
to the top of its head.
Fieid Characters: A long-legged, long-necked, egret-like
bird ; white except for the wings which are black. Legs and
heavy pointed bill red. Sexes alike, but female somewhat
smaller. Singly, pairs or small parties, on and.about marshland.
Distribution: Europe, Africa, Asia. In winter practically through-
out the Indian Empire. The race visiting most of this area is the
typical European-West Asian ciconia. The East Asian race boyciana,
with black instead of red bill, winters iu Assim and Burma. :
Habits : The White Stork is a common winter visitor to North
India, but is rare south of the Deccan and in Ceylon. It begins
to arrive in our midst in September, and most birds have left
again for their breeding grounds by the beginning of April. It
is certain that some at least of our winter visitors come from
Central Europe. Nestling storks ringed in Germany and Hungary
have been recovered on the Oman Coast of Arabia. One example
ringed as a nestling in Braunschweig (Germany) was found in
Bikanér a few months later, and therefore farther along the same
direction of flight. ‘he air distance covered by this young bird
was about 4,000 miles.
White Storks frequent marshes and the margins of jheels
singly or in pairs or small parties. They collect into larger
flocks before starting on their northward migration in spring.
They stalk along on the soft mud in search of food which consists
of frogs, reptiles, fish and large insects such as locusts of which
last particularly, they take enormons toll in times of swarms or
‘invasions.’ Its flight, which appears leisnrely, is in fact fast
and strong, and the birds have a habit of soaring in circles high
up in the heavens with the effortless ease and grace of the Vulture,
Storks do not possess voice muscles and are therefore silent
except for a loud clattering together of their mandibles which
both sexes freely indulge in, more especially during the breeding
season. During this performance the neck is bent over back-
wards so that the crown of the head rests on the back. The
gular pouch is puffed out and serves as a resonating organ.
Nesting: The typical race breeds in W. Asia and C. Europe,
between May and July building a large platform of sticks on
chimneys, the tops of buildings or tall trees and rocks. The
same site and nest are used year after year. The eggs—j to 5—
are pure white.
In most countries of the West as well as the East, sentiment
affords rigid protection to breeding storks. A nest on a dwelling
_ house or in its proximity is an auspicious omen since White
Storks, irom time immemorial, have been looked upon as models
of conjugal bliss and parental devotion, and as the legendary
ushers of hnman babies.
354
The White-necked Stork
355
165. The White-necked Stork
Dissoura episcopus (Boddaert).
Size: Rather smaller than the White Stork; standing nearly
3 ft. high.
Field Characters: A glistening black stork with conspicuous
white neck, and a black crown that looks like a padre’s skull cap.
Abdomen and under tail also white. Red legs. Sexes alike.
Singly, pairs or small parties, by water and on marshland.
Another stork, considerably larger than the White Stork,
and commonly seen on jheels standing in knee-deep water, is the
Black-necked Stork (Xenorhynchus asiaticus). Its enormous
black bill, glistening black head and neck, white underparts and
the pied black-and-white wings serve to reveal its identity.
Distribution : The typical race episcopus is resident through-
out the greater part of India (from about 3,000 ft. in the
Himalayas), Burma «and Ceylon. Rare in Sind. Beyond—
eastward—it extends through the Malay Peninsula and the
intervening countries and islands ta the Celebes. A second race
is found in Africa,
Habits: The White-necked Stork affects well-watered plains
country. It is met with singly, in pairs or small parties on
inundated or water-logged ground and about rivers, jheels, tanks
‘and ponds—especially where the latter are in the process of
drying up. The bird may be seen standing motionless on one
leg as if absorbed in meditation, or stalking about in company
with ibises, egrets and other marsh birds in search of food. This
consists of frogs, reptiles, crabs, molluses and large insects. In
day-to-day habits it does not differ appreciably from the White
Stork, and like it also may commonly be seen soaring in circles
ou outspread wings up in the air at great heights, in the company
of vultures. Any noise beyond the loud clattering of the man-
dibles is seldom produced by this bird.
Nesting: The White-necked Stork breeds practically through-
out the year, the favoured months varying with the locality.
The nest is a large platform of sticks with the central depression,
lined with grass and rubbish. 1t is placed fairly high up in a tree
often close to a village and seldom very far from water. A normal
clutch is of 3 or 4 white, obtuse oval eggs.
Both sexes share in building the nest and evidently also
in incubation.
356
The Adjutant Stork
357
166. The Adjutant Stork
Leptoptilos dubius (Gmelin).
“ Size : Larger than the Vulture ; standing 4 to 5 ft. high.
Field Characters: The largest and ugliest of our storks. A sad-
coloured black, grey and dirty white bird with. an enormous, thick,
four-sided, wedge-shaped bill; naked head and neck; and a huge
tuddy pouch, 12-15 inches long, pendant from the chest. Sexes
alike. Singly or parties, on outskirts of habitations or at jheels.
The Smaller Adjutant (L. javanicus), differing chiefly in size
and the absence of the neck pouch, is also found sparingly in well-
wooded and watered tracts over the greater part of India, including
Malabar and Ceylon.
Distribution: Notth India, Assim and Burma. Beyond—eastward
—-through the Malay Peninsula and Indo-Chinese countries to Java
and Borneo.
Habits: The Adjntant Stork derives its English name from its
deliberate, high-stepping military gait as it paces up and down. It is
principally a summer visitor to portions of North India and Bengal,
where it is common during that season. The bird is met with singly
or gregariously on the outskirts of towns and villages, and occasionally
also on marshy land about jheels. It is an officient scavenger ; until
a few years ago when urban sanitation was still rather primitive it
used to be abundant about Calcutta, perching on the housetops and
consorting frecly with kites and vultures of feast on the offal and garbage
dumped in the environs of the city, and on carcases of animals on the
countryside around. In addition to offal and carrion it also cats
frogs, fish, reptiles, large insects, and in fact anything catable it can
come by. The precise significance of the pendant pouch at the base
of the neck is obscure. Itis in the nature of an air-sac communicating
with the nasal cavity and has no connection with the gullet. Conse-
quently it cannot receive and store food as is popularly supposed.
The flight of the Adjutant is heavy and noisy. The bird is obliged
to tun a few steps before taking off, but when once well launched it is
perfectly at home in the air and, like its cousins, fond of soaring in
circles at great heights, On the ground it often squats with the ‘shanks’
extended well in front as shown in the background on the plate, head
drawn in between the shoulders and presenting a ludicrous spectacle.
Like the rest of its family it is destitute of voice muscles. The only
noise it normally produces is a loud clattering of the mandibles. It
is, however, also said to emit lowing grunts during the breeding season,
the sonrce of which is unknown.
Nesting: Though nests have been recorded from a few localities
in India, the real breeding grounds of the Adjutant lie in S. Burma.
Hete they breed in enormous numbers in the Pegu District along the
Ataran River, in company with Smaller Adjutants and Pelicans. The
nests are immense structures of sticks built on pinnacles of rock scarps
or in lofty forest trees, The eggs—3 to 4—are white.
358
The Painted Stork
359
167. The Painted Stork
ibis lencocephalus (Pennant).
Size: About that of the White Stork.
Field Characters: A large typical stork with long, heavy
yellow bill slightly decurved near lip, amc unfeatherecdt waxy
yellow face. Plumage white, closely barred and marked with
shining greenish-black above, and witha black band across breast.
Beautiful rose-pink about shoulders and on wings. Sexes alike.
Pairs, parties or large congregations, at jhee/s aud marshes,
Distribution: The typical race feucocephalus is found thronghout
india, Burnia anc Ceyton, but is rare inthe Panjab, Beyond -castword
- it extends to Indo-China and 5.-W. China, Resident, but abso local
migrant.
Habits: The Painted Stork is a common bird on jiee/s and
tanks, and to a lesser extent is also met with ou rivers. EL is a
resident species, but moves about locally under stress of natural
conditions such as droughts and floods. Ordinarily it keeps in
pairs and small flecks, but during the breeding season enormous
numbers collect in favourite locutities, The birds spend the day
standing ‘hunched-np’ and motionless, or saunteriug about
sedately on grassy marshland or in shallow water in search of fish
and frogs which predominate in their dict. They also eat aquatic
insects, crabs and inolluscs.
The birds perch freely on and roost in trees standing in or
near water, and have the usual stork habit of soaring in circles
on motionless wings for long periods-- several birds togetlier—-
high up in the air. When shifting from their feeding grounds to
their nightly roosts and vice versa, or on one of their local migra-
tions, they fly in wedge-formation with neck extended and. legs
tucked under the tail and trailing behind. The flight consists of
a series of powerful wing-strokes followed by a short glide. The
only noise they make is the loud clattering of the mandibles,
typical of the family.
Nesting The season varies with locality and natural conditions
but ranges principally between September and January. The
fainted Stork breeds im immense colonies sometimes running
into thousands, in close and amicable association with ibises,
herons, cormorants and such birds. The nests are large stick
platforms with a shallow depression in the middle sparsely lined
with leaves, straw, etc. They are built on baboot and other
small to moderately sized trees standing in water, often to to 20
nests on a single tree, close together and touching one another.
The eggs- 2 to 5 in number-—are a dull sullied white, occasionally
with sparse spots and streaks of brown.
Both sexes share in building the nest and feecing the voung.
360
The Open-billed Stork
g61
168. The Open-billed Stork
Anastomus oscilans (Boddaert).
Size: Small for a stork ; standing about 2} fect high.
Field Characters: A simall stork of grevish-white ar white
plumage with black in the wings. ‘The peculiar reddish-black
bill with arching mandibles leaving a narrow open gap between
them, is diagnostic. Sexes alike. Pairs or flocks, at jheels and
marshes,
Distribution: Throughout India, Ceylon and Burma, Beyond
—eastward-—-to Siam and Cochin-China. Resident, but also
local migrant.
Habits: The Open-bill is one of our commonest storks with a
very wide and general distribution. 1t is found in small parties
or flocks at all jheels and tanks of any size, and shifts about locally
as these dry up or as others spring into existence by the mensoon
inundation of depressions and low lying tracts, Occasionally it
is also met with on rivers and tidal mudflats. ln general habits
it does not differ from the family, Like the other storks it also
indulges in the soaring and circling flights high up in the air.
Likewise, the only sound it normally produces is the loud clat-
tering of its mandibles. The precise significance and function
of the curiously shaped hill is, however, not understood and calls
for special observation and study in the field. Lts feed consists
to a great extent of molluscs, especially the large Ampullaria
snails found on marshes, the thick shell of which it crushes in its
mandibles, extracting and swallowing the soft body and viscera.
From the bill and throat of a specimen 8 of such large snails,
minus their shells, have been taken. It also eats crabs, frogs
and any other small living things that can he obtained on its
accustomed feeding grounds.
Nesting: Tlie season over the greater part of its range is July to
September ; in S. India and Ceylon November to March. Opcn-
bills breed in large colonies trequently in association with cormo-
rants, herons, ibises and other marsh hirds. The nests are circular
platforms of twigs with the central depression lined with leaves,
etc, They are placed—often a great many together on a single
tree—-on. trees standing in a jheel or on its edgc, and sometimes
in the close proximity of a village. A normal clutch consists of
2 to 4 sullied white eggs, oval in shape and with a close texture.
362
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169. The Grey Heron
Ardea cinerea Linnaeus.
Size: About that of the Open-bill.
Field Characters: A large slender Jong-legged ceret-like bird
with long thin S-shaped neck and pointed dagger bill. Ash-grey with
whitish crown, neck and abdomen. Long black occipital crest. A
conspicuous black dotted line down middle of foreneck. Sexes alike,
Solitary, by reedy jheels, tanks and rivers.
The Purple Heron (4. purpurea) of the same size and general
habits, is also fonnd as a solitary bird on reed-bordered water through-
out India. It is bluish-grey, with head and neck chiefly rufous, and
black and chestnut underparts.
Distribution; Wide-—in Europe, Africa, Asia. ‘The astern race
rectirostvis—paler grey above than the European cincvea---is resident
throughout India, Burma and Ceylon, in the plains and up to about
5,000 ft, elevation.
Habits: The Grey Heron affects jheels, tanks, streams and tidal
creeks especially such as have plenty of reeds growing on their margins
or lining their banks. it is normally met with as a solitary bird
standing motionless in knee-deep water with head sunk between the
shoulders and apparently fast asleep. All the while, however, it is
fully alert and pecring intently into the shallows for any fish or frog
that might blunder past within striking range. When the quarry
is sighted the bird cranes forward its long flexible neck and ‘ freezes,’
waiting with poised bill for a favourable opportunity to strike. Pre-
sently the rapier bill darts out with lightning speed and the unsuspecting
victim is impaled or firmly held across the mandibles. With an upward
jerk of the bill it is manecuvred into position and swallowed head
foremost. The whole of this performance is put through with astonish-
ing quickness, and the bird promptly resumes its vigil. It sometimes
walks in stealthily towards its prey or to a new vantage point, with-
drawing and putting down its fect in the water noiselessly and with
great deliberation.
Herons are crepuscular and partly nocturnal in their habits,
and do most of their active feeding in the carly mornings and in the
evening twilight. Their food consists largely of fish and frogs, but
aquatic insects, molluscs and crustaceans us well as small mammals
like mice are also caten. When disturbed the bird rises with a deep
harsh croak, which is often also uttered from time to time in flight.
The initial get-off is clumsy and accompanied hy an awkward stretching
of the long neck, vigorous laboured flapping of the wings and by much
swaying and balancing with the long dangling legs. When welt
launched, the legs are tucked under the tail and trail behind, while
the head is drawn in between the shoulders. This ‘ telescoped ‘
position of the head and neck in flight is characteristic of the entire
heron tribe and contrasts strongly with the storks and cranes which
fly with fully extended necks,
Nesting: The scason varics with locality, but is mainly July to.
September in N. India; November to March in S. India and Ceylon.
This species nests gregariously in heronries, usually in company with
colonics. of Darters, cormorants, egrets, etc. The nests are twig
platforms with the central depression scantily lined with leaves and
straw. They are built in trees standing in water or on the edge of
gheels The eggs—normally 3 in number, but up to 6—are deep
sea-green in colour. Both sexes share in building the nest, incubation
and feeding the young.
364
The Little Egret
365
“ x70. The Little Egret
Epgretta garzetta (Linnacus).
Size :.. About that ofa village hen, but with longer neck and legs.
‘Field ‘Characters: A lanky snow-white egret, differentiated
at,éll seasons fromthe very similar Cattle Egret by its black not
yéllow bill. In the breeding season it develops a iong drooping
_Arest of two narrow plumes, and decomposed dainty ornamental
feathers or ‘aigrettes’ on its breast and back. Sexes alike.
Parties, by jheels and rivers.
Distribution: The typical race garzeita is found in Europe,
Africa and Asia east to Japan. It is common throughout the
plains of India, Burma and Ceylon.
Habits: The Little Egret frequents fresh water jheels, tanks,
ponds and rivers but to a lesser extent it is also found -by tidal
creeks, It is a sociable bird usually met with in small parties or
larger flocks, and commonly in association with the very similar
but slightly larger Egretta tutermedia-—the Smaller Egret. ‘They
wade in shallow water or stalk abont on the soft mud and grass-
land around the margins in search of food which consists mainly
of insects, frogs and small reptiles. The birdsroost at night in trees.
Some years ago Little Egrets used to be extensively and
lueratively farmed by the wohands or local fishermen on many of
the dhands or jheeis in Sind, for the sake of their clegant orna-
mental breeding plumes. These were collected in a humane
manner, without injury to the birds. ach bird seldom yielded
less than a tola during the year. They fetched from Rs. 10 to
Rs.15 per tola locally, and as much as £15 per oz. smuggled into
Europe. With the change in woinen’s fashions, egret feathers
no longer carry the same demand, and prices have also dwindled
accordingly. ut some small farms exist even to this day. The
species that chiefly supplied these ‘ aigrette ° feathers of com-
merce were: The Litlie Egret, the slightly larger Smaller Kgret
and the solitary Large Egret (/:gretta alba). Tlie last is a solitary
bird about the size of the Grey Heron, of pure white plimage and
with black legs and bill.
Nesting: The season in N, India is principally July and
August ; in the south November to February. The Little yret
breeds in heronries in the mixed company of Paddy Birds,
cormorants and other marsh birds. The nests ure shallow twig
cups of the crow type, scantily lined with straw, leaves, etc.
They are built in trees, usually but not always, standing in or
near water, and often in the very midst of towns or villages.
The same site and nests, repaired if necessary, are used year
_ after year. The eggs—usually 4---are moderately broad ovais
in shape and pale biuish-green in colour. ,
366
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367
171. The Cattle Egret
Bubulcus ibis (Linnaeus).
Size: Same as of the Little Egret. Village hen.
Field Characters: A snow-white lanky bird, very similar in
non-breeding plumage to the Little Egret, but recognisable by
the. colour of its bill which is ye/low not black. In the hreeding
season it acquires delicate golden-buff hair-like plimes on heac,
neck’ and back. Sexes alike. Gregarious. Usually attending
grazing cattle. Not necessarily near water.
Distributian; Africa and the sonthern, warmer parts of Europe and
Asia. The race coromandus is found throughout India, Burma and
Ceylon, Beyond—eastward—it extends to Korea. Resident.
Habits: The Cattle Egret is less dependent on the neighbour-
hood of water than are most of its family. 1¢ is met with gre-
gariously on grass- and pasture-land both on the margins of
tanks and jheels as well as further inland. The birds are in
constant attendance on grazing cattle, stalking alongside the
animals, running in and out between their legs, or riding on their
backs forachange. (Plate, p. 147) They keepan unceasing look-out
for the grasshoppers and other insects disturbed in the aninials’
progress through the grass, darting out their long flexible necks
and pointed bills and snapping them up as soon as they show any
movement. They also pick off blood-sucking flies, ticks and
other parasitic insects from the backs and hellies of the oxen and
buffaloes, jumping up for them as they scurry alongside or
alighting complacently on the animals’ heads and backs to reach
the less accessible parts. Their staple food, unlike that of their
marsh-haunting cousins, is insects, but they do not despise frogs
and lizards whenever available. Ities—both the House-lly and
the Blue-bottle—are greatly relished. The birds ate as a rule
tame, running or stalking about fearlessly amongst the cattle
within a few feet of the observer, and completely enzrossed in the
search for food.
Cattle Egrets have regular roosts in favourite trees to which
they resort every evening, flying more or less in a disorderly rabble,
with neck folded back, head hunched in between the shoulders,
legs tucked under the tail and projecting behind like a rudder.
Nesting: ‘The season, depending on the monsoons, is mainly
June to August in N. India; November/December in the south.
The birds breed in colonies usually in company with Paddy
Birds and sometimes also with Darters, cormorants and herons.
The nest is of the usual crow pattern—an untidy structure of
_ twigs. It is built in trees not necessarily near water and often in
the midst of a noisy bazaar in a town or village. Three to 5 eggs
form the normal cluteh. They are a pale skim-milk blue in colour.
368
The Indian Reef Heron
369
172. The Indian Reef Heron
Demiegretia asha (Sykes).
Size: About that of the Smaller Egret. Slightly larger than
the Village hen.
Field Characters: General effect as of the Smaller Egret with
a long, slender neck but found in two colour phases, viz., (1) pure
white, (2) bluish-slaty with a white patch on throat. Occasional
examples are intermediate, being partly white and partly slaty.
A backwardly drooping crest of 2 narrow plumes is donned in the
breeding season, The white phase is distingnishuble fram the
Smaiier Egret by its parti-coloured—yellow, brown or greenish—-
not black legs. Sexes alike. Singly about the sea-coast.
In the illustration opposite, the legs are incorrectly shown.
The tibia in this species (i.c., the portion above the tarsal joint
t ‘knee,’ which in reality is the heel in birds) is naked for
about half its length.
Distribution ; Along the shores of the Persian Gulf and down
to Ceylon and the Laccadive Islands.
Habits: The Indian Reef Heron is essentially a bird of the
sea-coasts. Except when breeding, it is met with as a solitary,
affecting the reefs of rock or coral exposed at low tide. It is
also found on mangrove-lined tidal creeks and estuaries and on
the adjoining mudflats, but seldom if ever on fresh water or far
inland. The bird may be seen perched on the rocks or amongst
the mangroves hunched up, as shown in the plate, ready to strike
out with its long flexible neck and pointed bill at any prey
swimming past. Or it wades about in search of food at the edge
of the surf or among the shallow pools and puddles left by the
receding tide. Its diet consists chiefly of fish, crustaceans and
molluscs. ,
Except that it is not gregarious at ordinary times, does not
leave the sea-coast and is rather crepuscular, there is no note-
worthy departure in its general habits from those of other egrets
and herons.
Nesting : The season ranges, according to locality, between
March and June. Reef Herons nest in colonies, but as a rule
not in company with other species. Their nests are the usual
twig structures of the family, but sometimes with the green leaves
still attached to the sticks, and often also lined with green leaves.
They are huilt either on trees such as peepal, bér or jambil
some distance from salt water, or in mangrove trees growing in
a tidal swamp. The eggs—3 or 4-—-are a pale sea-green or blue-
green in colour.
370
‘The Indian Pond Heron or Paddy Bird
371
173. The Indian Pond Heron or
Paddy Bird
. Ardeola gravii (Sykes).
Size: Slightly smaller than the Cattle Egret.
Fieid Characters: An egret-like bird with the plumage
mostly white but effectively concealed, while at rest, under a
camouflaging buff-streaked earthy-brown mantle. In flight
the white wings, tail, ramp and underparts flash conspicuously.
In the breeding season the back becomes maroon—covered
with dainty hair-like plumes—and a long white occipital crest
is developed. Sexes alike. Singly or gregariously, by water.
Distribution: Resident thronghant the Indian Empire, in the plains
and up to about 3,000 ft. in the hills. Beyond, it extends west to the
Persian Gulf, cast to Siam and the Malay States.
Habits: The Pond Heron or Paddy Bird is an abundant and
familiar species, found wherever there is water in any forin-~
river, jheel, tank, inundated paddy field, puddle or ditch, seashore,
tidal creek or mangrove swamp. It is also found at Autcha
wells and temple ponds, often in the heart of populous cities,
and is especially partial to drying-up village tanks on whose
margins large numbers collect to feed on the fast concentrating
frog population. The birds stand hunched up and inert on the
squelchy mud or in the shallow water at the edge, head drawn
in between the shoulders. In reality however, they are wide
awake and watching intently all the while for any frog or fish
that may blunder within range of the loug extengile neck and
spear-pointed bill, Sometimes they wade stealthily in, lifting
each foot clear of the water and putting it down again circum-
spectly, neck craned forward and bill poised in readiness.
Its food consists of frogs, fish, crabs and insects.
Where not molested the birds become very tame, sitting by
the water’s edge or stalking unconcernedly within a few feet
of the village dhobi banging his clothes or of the chattering house-
wives trooping down to the tank with their domestic pots.
When alarmed, the bird rises up with a harsh croak and a sudden
flash of its snow-white wings, and flies off with steady strokes
in the typical heron style. Large congregations resort to favourite
roosts in trees every evening.
Nesting : The season.is from May to September in most parts
of India; November to January in the south. Pond Herons
nest in colonies in association with other egrets and Night Herons.
The nests are untidy twig structures of the crow type, built in
large trees such as tamarind and mango, often growing in the
«midst of towns and villages and not necessarily close to water.
The same trees are tenanted year after year. A normal clutch
consists of 3 to 5 pale greenish-blne eggs.
372
The Night Heron
373
174. The Night Heron
Nycticorax nycticorax (Linnacus).
Size; About that of the Kite. Larger than the Paddy Bird,
Field Characters: A rather stocky egret-like bird of the same
general effect as the Paddy Bird but with a stouter bill. Ashy-grey
above with glossy greenish-black back and scapulars. Crown, nape and
long occipital crest black, the last with some white feathers intermixed.
Young birds brown, streaked and speckled with rufous and dark brown.
Sexes alike. Gregarious. Flying at dusk with loud raucous Kwaark.
Distribution: S. and C, Enrope, Asia, Africa and the greater part
of N. America. The typical race mycticoray is found practically
throughout India (up to 5,000 ft. in the N-W. Himalayas), Burma and
Ceylon. Resident, but also local migrant.
Habits: The Night Heron is found commonly but locally in all
the better--watered tracts both inland and along the sea-board. It
is a bird of crepuscular and nocturnal habits. It lives in colonies
which spend the day roosting slnggishly in some clump of trees, often
well away from water, in its characteristic pose with shortencd neck
and rounded shoulders. At evening dusk the birds bestir themselves.
Individuals or small partics may then be seen winging their way high
overhead towards their accustomed feeding grounds on the margins
of jheels, tanks ot tidal crecks, uttering from time to time a loud,
raucous and distinctive Kwaark. They feed largely at night and
during the evening and morning twilight. When tending nest-young
however, the parents are busy forgaging afl day and probably through-
out the night. In their quest for food they are usually more active
than the true herons, constantly moving about on the soft mud or
in shallow water, and seldom standing hunched up inert and like them.
Their diet consists of fish, frogs, aquatic insects, dragoniflies, etc.
The flight of the Night Heron is in the distance reminiscent of both
the flying fox’s and the gull’s. It is strong and-direct and attained
by quick strokes of the rounded wings. The neck is shortened, but
not folded back as the herons. At the communal roosts emotion
of any kind, sexual or otherwise, howsoever momentary, is expressed
by an erection of the crest and a fluffing out of the feathers of the
breast, neck and back.
Nesting: The season ranges between April and September, being
most gencral in July/August. In S. India December to February
are the favoured months. Night Herons nest in colonies often covering
several adjacent trees, either by themselves or in company with Paddy
Birds, Cattle Egrets and cormorants. The nest is the usual structure
of twigs about 9 inches across, rather flimsy and unlined. The eggs
—4 or 5—are pale sea-green in colour. Both sexes share in building
the nest, incubation and care of the young. The young birds soon
leave the nést and clamber about the neighbouring branches using
feet, wings and bill. The colony resonnds with the deafening incessant
clich, click, click, of the young clamouring to be fed.
374
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175. The Nukta or Comb-Duck
Sarkidiornis melanotos (Pennant).
«
Size; About that of a small goose.
Field Characters: <A large duck, black above glossed with blue
and green; white below. Head and neck speckled with black. A
white wing-patch conspicuous in flight. The drake has a curious,
fleshy comb or knob at forehead near base of bill which becomes
greatly swollen in the breeding season. The female is similarly coloured
but smaller and without the comb, Small flocks, on reedy sheels.
Another common resident Indian duck is the Spotbill (Anas
pecilorhyncha). It is tho size of the domestic duck, of scaly-patterued
light and dark brown plumage and with a white and metallic green
wing-bar. The two orange-red spots at the base of its bill, one on
either side of the forchead, are diagnostic.
Distribution ; The typical race melanotos occurs practically through-
out India, Burma and Ceylon. Absent in the N.W.F, Province,
Balichistan, North and West Punjab and the N.-W. portions of Sind.
Another race inhabits Africa south of the Sahara, and Madagascar.
Habits: The Nukta is one of our few resident ducks, the majority
of species being merely winter visitors to our area. It affects well-
watered, well-wooded country and is found on jheels and tanks with
plenty of reeds and floating vegetation growing about the shallow
margins, and with patches of open water here and there in the middle.
It is usually met with in family partics of 4 to 10 birds, but flocks
of up to 25 or 30 are sometimes sccn. These break up into pairs
during the breeding season. The birds are strong and rapid fliers.
When moving from onc tank to another or to and from their feeding
grounds in inundated paddy fields, they fly in a more or less disorderly
rabble and not in the regular V-formation of geese and cranes. They
walk and dive well and with ease, and perch freely on the thicker boughs
of trecs. Their food consists to a large extent of the grain and shoots
of wild and cultivated rice and other vegetable matter, but they also
eat frogs, aquatic insects, and, occasionally, fish. The ordinary
call note of the drake is a low grating croak; during the breeding
season the birds utter a lond honk.
The flesh of adult birds is considered rather indifferent for the
table, but flying ducklings are goad eating.
Nesting: The season is during the S.-W. Monsoon, mainly between
July and September, The oggs are normally laid in natural hollows
in tree trunks standing in water or at the edge of a jheel (Plate, p. 101).
These hollows are either unlined or have a scanty lining of sticks,
grass and leaves. The normal clutch consists of 8 to 12 eggs, but
up to 47 have been taken from a single nest, probably the product
of 2 or more ducks. The eggs are pale cream coloured, with the texture
and appearance of polished ivory. The female alone seems to incubate.
376
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377
176. The Cotton Teal
Netiapus coromandelianus (Gmelin).
Size: Between the Pigeon and the Crow.
Fieid Characters: The smallest of our ducks. White
predominating in the plumage. Jill deep at base and goose-
like, not as flat as the Duck’s. Male glossy brown above with
a prominent black collar and a white wing-bar. In flight,
whitish edge of wings conspicuous. Female paler withont
collar or wing-bar. In non-breeding season the male loses the
black collar and, with the exception of the white wing-bar,
resembles the female. Flocks on tanks and jheels.
Distribution: Common practically throughout india, Burma and
Ceylon, rare at absent in Punjab, Sind, Balichistan, and Rajpitana.
Beyond—castward-~it extends through the intervening countries to
the Celebes. Resident, but also local migrant.
Habits: The Cotton Teal is not only the smallest but the
commonest and most generally distributed of our resident ducks.
It is found wherever there is water with plenty of rceds, floating
vegetation and the like—on jheels and village tanks as well
as on weedy, overgrown roadside ditches and flooded burrow-pits,
and inundated paddy fields. [t is also at home on the vast
shallow expanses of brackish water such as are found in the
environs of Calcutta City and elsewhere. It is usually met with in
parties of 5 to 15 individnals, but larger flocks of up to 50 or more
are sometimes seen. Where unmolested this little teal becomes
very tame, swimming about and tipping for food, unconcernedly
within a few yards of the inhabitants engaged at their daily
avocations on village tanks, Under persecution, lowever, it
soon becomes extremely wary and difficult to approach.
The birds are swift on the wing and can dive creditably
on occasion. A peculiar clucking is commonly uttered in flight.
Their food consists of shoots and grain of wild and cultivated
vice and other vegetable matter, to which is added a quantity
of insects, crustacea, worms, etc.
Nesting: The season is from July to September. The nest
is in some natural hollow in a tree trunk standing in or near water,
6 to 15 feet above the level. This is either unlined or has a scanty
lining of grass, feathers and rubbish. Occasionally a hole in a
building is utilised, and there is a record of a nest in the coping
of Government House, Rangoon, as high up as 68 feet. The
normal clutch consists of 6 to 12 eggs, but as many as 22—
probably the product of 2 or more females—have been found in
a nest, They are ivory white in colour. The ducklings are not
carried down to the water by the parentsas is supposed, but just
pushed out of the hole. They drop like a stone for some distance
and then flutter to break the fall as they approach the ground.
378
379
177 The Bar-headed Goose
Anser indicus (Latham).
Size: About that of the domestic goose.
Field Characters: A grey, brownish and white goose, with
white head and sides of neck and 2 distinctive broad black bars
onthenape. Sexesalike. Flocks, on rivers and jheels, and about
young winter cultivation,
Another common goose, also a winter visitor to N. India in
large nnmbers, is the Grey Lag (Anseranser). Insize, colouration
and general effect it is very like the normal brown phase of the
domestic goose. The grey rump and white nail to the flesh-pink
bill are additional clues to its identity. It keeps more to the dry
margins of jheels than to rivers as the Bar-head essentially does.
Distribution: Central Asia and Western China, south to Ladakh and
and Tibet. In winter common throughout North India and Assim,
rare in Central India and straggling as far south as Mysore.
Habits: The Bar-headed Goose is a cold weather visitor to
India, arriving in our midst about October. By the beginning
of March most birds have departed for their northern breeding
grounds, It is met with in small parties or skeins of 15 to 20
birds, The skeins fly off separately when alarmed or when
flighting to and from their feeding grounds, but congregate in
vast gaggles when feeding or resting. They spend the day
dozing on some sandbank in a large river or on the margin of a
jheel, resting on the dry ground or floating listlessly upon the
shallow water. The birds become active towards evening when
flock after flock may be seen winging its way steadily, in orderly
V-formation or straight ‘ribbons’ high up in the air, in the
direction of their feeding grounds in cultivated fields and marshy
grassland around jheels and irrigation canals. They feed largely
on the green shoots of winter crops such as gram and wheat,
aud owing to their numbers and voracity often do considerable
damage. They are rather crepuscular and nocturnal in their
habits, commencing to feed in the late afternoon and continuing
throughout the night till well past dawn. The call, usually
heard on the wing, is a mnsical honk, and the din produced by a
gaggle as they rise on alarm is one of the most exhilarating and
unforgetable sounds to the sportsman on a North Indian jheel.
The Bar-head is at all times an excessively wary species and calls
for much skill and labour in circumventing and bringing to bag.
Nesting: The nearest breeding localities are Ladikh and Tibet,
-where the birds nest in colonies running into thousands, on the
shore and islets of the high altitude lakes, at 13 or 14 thousand
feet above sea level. The nests are holléws in the lush herbage
or piles of moss, weeds and grass thickly lined with down and
feathers. The eggs—3 or 4 in a normal clutch—are ivory white.
380
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381
178. The Common or Lesser Whistling
Teal
Dendrocygna javanica (Horsfield).
Size: Smaller than the domestic duck.
Field Characters: A smail chestnut coloured duck,
confusable with no other of the same size. Sexes alike. Shrill
whistling notes uttered during the fecble, flapping flight. Small
flocks, on weedy tanks,
The Large Whistling Teal (Dendrocygna fulva), distinguished
by its larger size and by its upper tail-coverts being whitish
instead of chestnut, is also found sparingly in India and the
Indo-Chinese countries over the same area as javanica, It has a
remarkably broken distribution outside these limits, ocenrring in
parts of Africa, and then again in North and South America.
Distribution: Practically throughout the plains of India, Burma and
Ceylon except in the N-W. F. Province and in N. & W, Punjab,
Beyond-—castward-—it extends through the Malay Peninsula and
Islands, Siam, Cochin-China, ete., to South China, Sumatra, Java and
Borneo, Resident, but also local migrant.
Habits: The Lesser Whistling Teal is a common and familiar
resident Indian species foundon all reed and tloating vegetation —
covered tanks and jieels and often alsa in swampy paddy fields.
It loves such as have trees growing in or around them, on the
branches of which it perches freely, [t avoids open water and
rivers. The birds move about a good deal locally under stress
of natural conditions such as drouglit and foods. They nsnally
keep in small parties of 10 to 15, but occasionally much larger
(locks are met with. Thev have a ficeble, flapping ilight, rather
reminiscent of the Jayaias’, which is accompanicd by constant,
shrill, wheezy whistling notes. The birds keep wheeling over a
iank long after most of the other ducks have. departed as a result
of gunfire. They are poor eating and on that account seldom
shot by sportsmen, ‘Their food consists of snails, worms, {rogs,
fish, etc., as well as tender green shouts of grass, paddy and the
like, and grain, The birds walk and dive well.
Nesting: ‘The season ranges from June to October in India
and Burma, Febrnary to August in Ceylon, its commencement
depending upan the break of the S.-W. Monscons, Although
many birds build nests of leaves, rushes and grass on the ground
among thorny scrub, reeds, etc., most nests are found in trees,
often well away from water. They are twig structures situated
either in natural hollows in the trunks or in the forks of the
larger branches. Sometimes old nests of crows, kites and herons
are utilised. Seven to 12 eggs form the normal clutch, the
commonest number being 10. They are milk-white in colour,
but become stained brownish during incubation, which scems to
be undertaken by the female alone.
382
at
{eal vouMo; on,
aypuda ry
383
179. The Common Teal
Nettion crecca (Linnaeus).
Size: Smaller than the domestic duck.
Field Characters: Our second smallest duck ; slightly larger
than the Cotton Teal. Male pencilled greyish colour. Chestnut
head with broad metallic green band running through the eye,
bordered above and below with whitish. A tricoloured wing-
bar-—black, green and buff—particnlarly conspicuous in flight.
Female mottled dark and light brown with pale underparts, and a
black-and-green wing-bar, Tlocks on tanks, jheels and marshes, etc.
Distribution: The typical race crecca breeds throughout the
Palearctic Region. Winter visitor to all India, Ceylon and Burma
south to Pegu. Also ta the Indo-Chinese countries and N, Atrica.
Habits: In abundance as a winter visitor the Common Teal
rivals the White-cyed Pochard. Along with the Garganey or
Blue-winged Teal (Querquedula quergquedula) it is one of the
earliest ducks to arrive in our midst, numbers being already in
by the end of August. By the middle or end of March most
birds have departed on the long journey to their northern breeding
grounds, A teal ringed in Western Siberia—presumably as a
nestling—in July 1929 was recovered in December of the same
year in the Gonda District, U. P., about 2,500 miles to the south.
The Common Teal frequents jhee/s, tanks and ponds, as well
as rivers, canals, roadside ditches, marshes and flooded paddy-
fields, It is usually met with either in small parties of 3 or 4
birds or flocks of up to 50 or more, but very large flocks—running
into hundreds—are not uncommon on the larger jheels. The
birds feed in the marginal shallows mostly at night, when they
also spread out a good deal over the surrounding country on
flooded paddy-fields and marshy land, In places where they are
not much disturbed they may be seen walking about on the
grass-covered edges of tanks till quite late in the mornings and
in the early afternoons, grubhing with their bills in the squelchy
mud. They also procure much of their food by ‘tipping’ in
shallow water. The food consists of the tender shoots of young
crops and marsh plants as well as molluscs, crustaceans, worms,
etc. Their flight is very swift and strong, and the birds twist
and wheel in the air with astonishing agility. The call-note
most commonly heard is a low-toned Avit uttered by the male,
and a subdued wheezy quack by the female, It is at all times an
excellent bird for the table and much sought after by sportsmen.
Nesting: The Common Teal does not breed anywhere within
our limits. The season in the North is from April to June. The
nest is an untidy but well-made pad of rushes, grass, etc., and
always thickly lined with down. It is gengrally placed at the edge
of swamps and lakes and on boggy ground. The eggs—normally
8 to 14-—are pale buff or cream coloured, rather long ovals with
a smooth and glossy texture.
384
PIBYIOd pada-oityA oT,
SMONAN NH
385
180. The White-eyed Pochard
Nyvoca nifa (Linnaeus).
Size: Smaller than the domestic duck.
Field Characters :. General aspect of plumage rufous-brown
and blackish brown with a whitish wing-bar conspicuons in flight.
In overhead flight the abdomen, seen as an oval white patch, is
diagnostic. Eyea white. The female is duller coloured. Flocks
on jheels, tanks and salt water lagoons, in winter.
Distribution: The typical race rufa is a winter visitor from the
western Palxarctic Region to the greater part of India and
Burma. The East Asian race baerit, with green-glossed black
head and neck in the male, visits Bengal, Assim and Burma.
Habits: The White-cyed Pochard is one of the commonest and
most abundant of the ducks that visit us during the cold weather,
It is plentiful in North and cuntinental India, but rare in the
south where, however, large numbers may be met with patchily
along the coast as on the Travancore backwaters. It frequents
every type of water provided there is a sufficiency of reeds and
floating herbage growing in it or along its margins. But it may
also be found resting during the day in the middle of open irriga-
tion tanks, or riding just outside the surf on the sea-coast, safe
from the disturbance of passing boats. The birds use these
open tanks and the sea as a day-time refuge. They flight
inland at night regularly to feed in the inundated paddy fields
and marshes in the surrounding country, returning again in the
early morning.
Though rather slow in taking off the water, the White-cye
is strong on the wing once under way, flying high and with rapid
swishing wing-strokes. It is an expert diver and extremely
difficult to retrieve if merely winged, even in perfectly open water,
for besides keeping itself submerged for considerable periods it
swims with ease below the surface, showing itself only momen-
tarily now and again in the most unexpected places and giving
no chance for a second shot. In this way it steadily increases
the distance between itsclf and its pursuers until a weedy spot is
reached where it simply vanishes. It is a bad walker and clumsy
on land. Its food consists of vegetable matter, grain, insects,
molluscs, small fish, etc. Its flesh is on the whole poor eating.
Its note is described as a harsh koor-ker-ker, uttered both as it
rises and when wandering about feeding.
Nesting: The only locality within our limits where the White-
eyed Pochard breeds is Kashmir, on the Hokra and other jheeis,
in May and June. The nest is a pad of rushes lined with finer
grasses and a thick layer of down. It is generally built among
reeds close to the water. The eggs—6 tv 10—are pale buff in
colour. Large quantities of its eggs formerly used to be collected
by local fishermen and sold in the Kashmir bazaars, but this
practice has now been put a stop to.
386
AMpYeq JO aqeIH YET GL
181. The Little Grebe or Dabchick
Podiceps riuficollis (Vroeg).
Size: About that of the Pigeon, but squat and tailless,
Field Characters: A drab-coloured plump and squat water
bird with silky white underparts, short pointed bill and practi-
cally no tail, Sexes alike. Gregariously on ponds, village tanks,
jheels, etc.,swimming about low down on the water with the tail-end
and wings raised, rather likeaswan. Diving at the least suspicion.
Distribution: The race capensis occurs throughout India, Burma and
Ceylon in the plains as well as up to about 5,000 ft. in the Himalayas
and peninsular hills. It is also found in tropical Africa, Madagascar,
Palestine and Mesopotamia; and in Siam and Yunnan,
Habits: The Dabchick is present practically on every jheel,
village tank or pond in India. It moves about locally to some
extent, concentrating on perennial sheets of water as the seasonal
ponds and tanks gradually dry up in the hot weather. The birds
are met with in twos and threes on the smaller tanks, but congre-
gations of 40 to 50 or more are not uncommon on the larger jheels.
They spend their time swimming about and are past masters in
the art of diving. The rapidity with which a Dabchick will
disappear below the surface leaving scarcely a ripple behind, is
amazing. When fired at with a shot gun, the bird has often
vanished before the charge can reach it! Thcir food consists of
aquatic insects and their larvw, tadpoles, crustaceans and the
like which are captured below the surface, the bird being an adept
at swimming under water. The usual call-notes are a sharp tit-
tering often heard when the birds are disporting themselves uf an
evening, as is their wont, pattering along the surface half running
half swimming with rapid vibrations of their diminutive wings,
and chasing one another. They are loathe to leave the water,
and when pressed will only fly a short distance close over the
surface and flop down again, When once properly launched,
however, as when shifting from one tank to another, the birds
can fly incredibly well and strongly, and often for long distances,
Nesting: The season is not well-defined but ranges principally
between April and October. Two broods are frequently raised
in quick succession. The nest is a rongh pad of sodden weeds
and rnshes placed among reeds or on floating vegetation and
often half submerged. The normal clutch consists of 3 to 5 eggs.
These are white at first but soon get discoloured to dirty brownish
by the constant soaking and contact with the sodden vegetation
with which the birds habitually cover them up every time they
leave the nest. Both sexes share in incubation and tending the
young. When the female is incubating her second successive
clutch of eggs, the care of the first brood devolves upon the male
alone.
388
Photo E. H.N. Lowther
A Raised “ Hide” Platform
For observation and photography of birds nesting in tall trees.
, 389
BIRD WATCHING
Nearly every one enjoys birds : the beauty of their forms and
colouring, the vivacity of their movements, the buoyancy of
their flight and the sweetness of their songs. It is precisely
on this account that as a pursnit for the out-of-doors, bird-
watching stands in a class by itself. Its strong: point is that
it can be indulged in with pleasure and profit not only by the
man who studies birds scientifically, but also by one possessing
no specialised knowledge. The latter, moreover, is enabled to
share his profit with the scientist who for certain aspects of bird
study has to depend entirely npon data. collected by the intelligent
watcher,
The appreciation of the beantiful and the novel is a charac-
teristic latent in the human species. There is none in whom
the seed of this faculty is entirely wanting. Environment may
nurture and develop it in some, smother it in others. The fact
af its existence is proved by the enquiries an ornithologist
frequently receives concerning the identity of this bird with a
green head or that with a red tail from persons of the most
prosaic ‘butcher, baker and candlestick-maker’ type who in the
course of their day to day lives would never dream of going a
step out of their way solely to look at a bird. It shows that even
such a person, inspite of himself, cannot at one time or another
help being struck by some peculiarity in the sight or sound of a
bird which had not forced itself on his notice before,
It is amazing what tricks the imagination can play with
undisciplined observation. A person who, for example, notices
a male Paradise Flycatcher for the first time and is struck by
its exquisite tail-ribbons fiuttering in the breeze, will, as likely
as not and in all good faith, clothe his bird in multi-coloured
hues of green and blue and yellow and red when describing it
to you. The only real clue he furnishes is the ribbon tail. Some
days later you have an opportunity of pointing out a Paradise
Flycatcher to your enquirer with the suitable suggestion, where-
upon you promptly learn that this indeed was the object of his
ecstacy! Yet it is equally amazing what small effort is needed
to discipline oneself to observe accurately. After a comparatively
short period of intelligent bird-watching one can _ often
become so proficient that the mere glimpse of a bird as it
flits across from one bush to another—some distinctive flash
‘of colour, a peculiar twitch of the tail—is enough to suggest its
identity fairly reliably. If it is an unfamiliar species this fleeting
impression will often suffice to puzzle # out with the aid of a
bird book afterwards. ‘
390
Apart from the joy and exhilaration it affords, careful aud
intelligent bird-watching—considering that it can be indulged
in by the many without special scientific training—widens the
scope immensely for procuring data relating to the lives and
behaviour of birds. Observations by people who habitually
watch birds even merely for pleasure, are often of great value
to the scientist trying to unravel some particular phase of bird-
life. Indeed, such observations—made as they are without
knowledge of, or being swayed by this pet theory or that—
frequently carry the added virtue of being completely unbiased.
As mentioned in a previous chapter the bulk of the work
that now remains to be done on the birds of India
concerns the Jiving bird in its natural surroundings: How
the bird lives and behaves; In what way is it fitted or is fitting
itself to its habitat ? How is it influenced by or is influencing
its environment? It is only satisfactory answers to ques-
tions like these—and their number is legion—that can lead us
to a better understanding of that very real but strangely elusive
thing called Life.
One often hears it asserted that there are xo birds in this
locality or that. Such statements merely suggest that the
observer may not know exactly where and how to look for them.
For indeed it is difficult to imagine a single square mile of the
Indian continent entirely devoid of birds. Even in the midst
of the scorching Rajpitana desert or amongst the high Himalayan
snows, birds there are for those who know how to find them.
They may be scarce and local, simply because their food happens
to be scarce and local, but they are never entirely absent over
areas of any size.
For the new arrival in this country and for the novice, some
suggestions as to when and where to look for birds with success
might prove helpful. First and foremost, although birds a>
on the move all day long, their activity is greatest in the early
morning ; therefore early rising is a most important pre-requi-
site for successful watching. Most song is also heard during the
early morning hours. Discovering the identity of a songster
often entails patient watching, and the facility for tracking
him down is naturally greatest in the early morning when
the bird is most vocal.
Contrary to the popular notion, a forest, to the inexperienced,
is usually a very disappointing place for bird-watching. You
may tramp miles withsut seeming to meet or hear a bird,
and then just as you begin to despair you may round a bend in
the path’ and suddenly find yourself confronted by a gathering
391
that includes well nigh every species of the neighbourhood |
There are birds on every hand: on the ground, among the bushes,
on the trunks of the lofty trees and in the canopy of leaves
high overhead. There are tits, babblers and tree-pies, wood-
peckers, nuthatches and drongos, flycatchers, minivets, and
tree-warblers and numerous other species besides. The scene
is suddenly transformed into one of bustling activity. You
have in fact struck what the books call a ‘Mixed Hunting
Party’ or ‘Localised Forest Association.’ These mixed
assemblages are a characteristic feature of our forests, both
hill and plain. Here birds do not as a rule spread themselves
out uniformly, but rove about in co-operative bands. of mixed
species in more or less regular daily circuits. All the members
of the association profit through the co-ordinated efforts of the
lot. Babblers rummaging amongst the fallen leaves for insect
food disturb a moth which is presently swooped upon and captured
in mid-air by a drongo on the look-out hard by. A wood-
pecker scuttling up a tree-trunk in search of beetle galleries
stampedes numerous winged insects resting upon the protecting-
ly coloured bark or lurking within its crevices. These are
promptly set upon by a vigilant flycatcher or warbler—and so
on,
Banyan and peepal trees, when in ripe fig, attract a multi-
tude of birds of many species from far and wide and offer excellent
opportunities to the bird-watcher. A lively scene presents
itself as party after party arrives, all eager to gorge themselves
on the abundance spread around. There is a great deal of noise
and chatter as the visitors hop from branch to branch in their
quest. Bickering and bullying are incessant, but no serious
encounters develop since every individual is much too pre-
occupied with the main business in hand. Such gatherings are
ideal for studying the natural dispositions and ‘ table manners’
‘of the various species.
One of the most charming and enjoyable venues for bird-
watching certainly is provided by the Silk Cotton, Coral Flower or
Flame-of-the-Forest trees in bloom. Their particular attractiveness
lies in the fact that the trees, or the branches bearing the gorgeous
flowers, are bare and leafless at this season, allowing a clear and
unobstructed view of the visitors. Almost every small bird of the
surrounding countryside flocks to the blossoms for the sake of
the sugary nectar which they produce in such abundance. Riot
and revelry prevails throughout the day, but especially in the
mornings, and there is constant ybullying, hustling and
mock fighting amongst the roystdrers. A pair of good
binoculars multiplies the pleasure of watching manifold.
392
sag “dS 'A
« IPIH » PuNnoIy
pegepnoury v
393
Another favourable occasion is after the first few showers of
tain have fallen and the winged termites—the potential queens and
their numerous suitors—are emerging from their underground
retreats for their momentous nuptial flight. A termite
swarm acts like a magnet on the bird population of
its neighbonrhood. Caste and creed are. forgotten and
every species hastens to the repast; no quarter is given,
the insects being chased and captured on the ground as well
as in the air. The agile and graceful gliding swoops of the
swallows and swifts contrast strangely with the ponderous,
ungainly efforts of crows making unaccustomed aerial sallies
in the pursuit, Kites, kestrels, crows, owlets, mynas and
bulbuls, sparrows, bayas and mimias, tree-pies, drongos and
orioles, tailor-birds and wren-warblers all join in the massacre,
while even woodpeckers and barbets can seldom resist the
temptation.
Nesting birds provide much important material for the study
of animal behaviour. These can best be studied from a
‘hide’ erected in the proximity of their nests. A portable
‘hide’ iseasily made witha few iron rods and some canvas,
or ane of straw and leafy branches can usually be rigged up
on the spot without difficulty. The birds soon get inured
to its presence and can be watched from within in
comparative comfort and at close quarters. Bird photography
adds enormously to the zest of bird-watching. Many facts of
far-reaching significance concerning nesting habits and sexual
behaviour have been brought to light by the careful observa-
tions and pictorial evidence of bird-photographers. There
is no pleasanter way of prolonged and intensive watching than
in pursuit of bird photography, and there can be no success in
bird photography without patient and intensive watching.
Camera studies of birds in their natural surroundings and busy at
their normal occupations are a joy not only to their maker, but
also to others who have not been fortunate enough to share in his
watching. The several attractive photographs reproduced in
these pages will bear this out. No one interested in this fasci-
nating pastime should miss Major R. S. P. Bates’s informative
article on Bird Photography in India published in Volume XL
of the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society (May,
1939).
A North Indian jheel in winter is a veritable paradise for
the bird-watcher. Every species of water bird, as well as those
that live about the margins and in thg marshy reed-beds, may
be met here, and an unique opportun ty is afforded of getting
acquainted ‘with them. It is an xhilarating experience,
394
even for one who is not a_ shikavi, to drift along iua
punt over the placid water on a cold morning with the din of
honking, quacking and trumpeting on every hand, and the
fluttering and swishing of wings of countless wildfowl overhead.
The multitudes of the birds, apart from their great variety,
leave a picture on the mind that is not easily lost.
1t must not be supposed that this list exhausts the possi-
bilities for bird-watching in India. Indeed pleasure can be
derived from the most everyday birds in the most everyday
surroundings and even the jaded city dweller can regale his
leisure hours without the necessity of going far afield in search
of special opportunities.
Every one who watches birds intelligently enough to
enjoy them, and who carries a note book, should be ina
position to contribute in some measure to our store of knowledge.
The essentials are’ Patience plus the ability to observe accurately
and to record faithfully, even though the observations may
sometimes disagree with the books or the observer himself would
sometimes prefer things to happen differently from what he
observes !
Above all it is important that sentimentality be kept
in check and to remember at all times that the belaviour
of birds cannot be adjudged entirely from human standards.
Birds do not possess the power of reasoning; therefore their
actions, lhowever intelligent they may seem, are _ essentially no
more than instinctive reflexes.
395
INDEX OF SPECIES
( Those partly deseribed, in italics.)
Page
A
Adjutant Stork, 458
— —-— Lesser, 358
Avocet, 334
B
Babbler, Common, 16
-——_—— Jungle, 14
——_—-— Large Grey, 16
—~—— — Rufous-bellied, 20
——--- -— Scimitar, 18
- Yellow-eyed, 22
Barhet, Crimson-breasted, 174
aes - Crimson-ikvoated, 174
Baya or Common Weaver
Bird, 124
Bee-eater, Bluc-tailed, 208
-- Common or Green, 206
Blackbird, Southern, 50
Blue Jay or Roller, 4
‘Brain-fever Bird or Hawk-
Cuckoo,
Bulbul, Green, or Chloropsis,
8,
--—— Ked-vented, 30
—-- - KRed-whiskered, a4
——-~ White-browed, 36
———- White-cheeked, 32
Bunting, Black-headed, 138
—- + Crested 138
---——— Red-headed, 138
Bustard, Great Indian, 316
c
Chat, Brown Rock, 52
—-— Collared or Indian Bush-,40
—-— Pied Bush, 38
Chloropsis, Gold-fronted, 26
—-— Jerdon’s 28
Coot, 304
Cormorant, Large, 344
———-—— Little, 344
Cotton Teal, 378
Coucal or Crow-pheasant, 182
Courser, Cream-coloured, 320
——-~- Indian, 320
Crane, Common, alt
Demoiselle, 3l4
—— Sarus; 312
Crow, Common House-, 2
——— Jungle 4
——~ King-, or Black Drongo, 78
—-—— Pheasant or Coucal, 182
XXXVI
|
Page
Cuckoo, Common Hawk-,
or Brain-fever Bird, i776
Cuckoo, Pied Crested, [78
Cuckoo-Shrike, Black-headed, 74
Cuckoo-Shrike, Large, 76
Curlew, " 316
D
Dabchick or Little Grebe, 38s
Darter or Snake-bird, 346
Dhayal, or Magpie-Robin, 46
Dove, Little Brown, 268
——-- Red Turtle-, PAL
—---- Ring, 268
—-— Spotted, 266
Drongo, Black, or King-Crow, 78
——-- Racket-tailed, a2
—-— White-bellicd, 30
Duck, Comb-, or Nukta, 376
——~ Spothill, 376
Fagle, Crested Serpent, 246
~-—— Pallas’s or Ring-
tailed Fishing, 250
----— Tawny, 244
-———White-cyed, Buzzard-, 248
Egret, Cattle, Mas
366
dé
——-- Smaller, 366
Faleon, Laggar, 240
—~--— Peregrine, 240
Finch, Indian- Rose, 132
Finch-lark, Ashy-crowned, 158
Flower pecker, Thick-billed, 166
—— — Tickell's 166
Flycatcher, Paradise, 58
--——~—— Tickell’s Blinc, 6
—--——~— White-browed
Fantail, 60
~-— ——---White-Spotted
Fantail, 60
G
Goose, Bar-headed, 380
--—— Grey Lag, 380
Grackle or Hitl-Myna, TW
Grebe, Little, or Dabchick, 388
Greenshgnk,
Gull, {Black-headed or
Laughing,
—---Brown-headed, 422
INDEX OF SPECIES—conid.
Page
H
Harewa, (Chloropsis) 26, 28
Harrier, Marsh, 258
——— Pale, 258
Heron, Grey, 3604
——— Indian Reef, 370
—— — Night, 374
—-——-~ Pond or Paddy Bird, 372
——— Purple, 364
Hoopoe, 218
Hornbill, Commou Grey, 216
- Malabar Grey, 216
I
Ibis, Black, 852.
——-- Glossy, 3d2
| —-— White, 350
Tora, Commen, 24
Jacana, Bronze-winged, 306
~--——— Pheasant-tailed, 308
Junglefowl, Grey, 276
———--— Red, 274
K
Kestrel, 242
Kingfisher, Common, 212
ee — Pied, 210
- Himalayan Pied 210
-——- White-breasted, 214
Kite, Black-winged, 256
—-— Brahminy, 252
----- Common Pariah, 254
Koel, 180
L
Laggar Falcou, 240
Lapwing, Red-wattled, 328
a Yellow-wattled, 330
Lark, Crested, 156
- + Finch-, Ashy-crowned, 158
Malabar Crested, 156
- Sky-, Small, 154
—---- Syhes’s Cresied, 156
Loriquet, 202
M
Magpie-Robin, or Dhyal, 46
Martin, Crag-, { 140
———-— Dusky Crag-, | 140
' Minivel, Orange, 70
Page
Minivet, Scarlet, Ww
———- Short-biiled, 70
72
Moorhen, Indian, 300
—— Purple, 302.
Munia, Red, or Wax-bill, 130
——— Spotted, 130
++++-— White-backed, 128
-— - + White-throated, 128
Myna, Bank, 120
-—-— Brahminy or Black-
headed, 116
——~— Common, 118
——— Grey-headed, 114
— Hill-, or Grackle, 110
- Jungle, 120
—-—-- Pied, 122
Night Heron, a74
Nightjar, Common Indian, 224
Nukta or Comb-Duck, $76
Nuthatch, Chestnut - bellied, 12
ag O°
Oriole, Black-headed, 108
—--— - Golden, 106.
Openbilled, Stork, 362
Owl, Barn or Screech-, 26
-— Brown Fish-, 228
- - Indian Great Horned-, 236)
Owlet, Spotted, 232
P
Paddy Bird or Pond Heron, 372
Parakeet, Blossyom-headed, 188
--— Large Indian, or
Alexandrine, I84
--— Rose-ringed, 186
Partridge, Black, 284
—— — Grey, 236
——-—— Painied, 284
Peafowl, Common, 272
Peregrine Falcon, 240
Pharaoh’s Chicken, of
Scavenger Vulture, 238
Pigeon, Blue Rock-, 264
—- Common Green, 262 ©
Pipit, Indian, 152
Pitta, Indian, 168
Plover, Little Ringed-, 326
Pochard, White-eyed, 386
XXxviii
INDEX OF SPECIES--contd.
Page
Q
Quail, Black-breasted or
Rain-, 280
~-——— Bustard-, 288
——~ Common or Grey, 278
——— Jungle Bush-, 282
rv Rock Bush-, - 282
R
Redshank, 3g8
Redstart, 42
Robin, Indian, 44
—-—-- Magpic-, or Dhyal, 46
Roller, or Blue Jay, 204
Rose-Finch, Indian, 132
Rosy Pastor, 12
8
Sandgrouse, Common, 270
Sandpiper, Common, 338
++ ns Green, 338
— Wood or Spotted, 338
Sams Crane, 32
Sa tbhai” or Jungle Babbler, j4
“Seven Sisters" or Jungle
Babbler, i4
Shag, Indian, d44
Shama, 48
Shikra, 260
Shrike, Bay-backed, 64
Cuckoo-, Black-
headed, 74
~—~—— Cuckoo-, Large, 76
——- Grey, 62
Rufous-backed, 66
Wood, 68
Skylark, Smail 164
Snake-bird, or Darter, 6
Snipe, Common or Fantail, 342
Painted, 310
- Pintail, 342
Sparrow, House, 136
———— Yellow-throated, 134
Spoonbill, 348
Starling, Rose-coloured-, or
Rosy Pastor,
Stilt, Black-winged, 332
Stint, Little, 340
Temminck's, 340
Stone-curlew, 318
Stork, Adjutant, 358
Page
Stork, Lesser, Adjutant, 353
———- Biack-necked, 356
- Open-billed, 362
Painted, 300
White, 354
White-necked, 356
Sunbird, Purple, 162
— Purple-rumped, ie
Swallow, Common, 142
——-- ~-- Indian Wire-tailed, 144
14€
- - —— Red-vumped,
Swift, House-, : 220
— — Palm-, 222
T
Tailor-Bird, a4
Teal Blue-winged or
Garganey, 384
384
--—~Commion,
» +--+ Cotton, 378
—-—— Large Whistling, 382
--+-~ Lesser Whistling, 382
Tern, Blach-bellied, 324
—-— = Gull-billed, 424
River, ; 324
‘Thrush, Blne Rock-, 52
—-—-—-- Malabar Whistling, 54
Himalayan Whistling,b4
Tit, Grey,
—— Yellow-cheeked, i?
Tree-Pie, 6
v
Vulture, Black, King or
- Pondicherry, 234
—-~—— White-backed, 236
— ~ White Scavenger, 238
Wagtail, Eastern Grey, 146
———— Large Pied, 148
—~ White, 150
Warbler, Ashy Wren-, 88
———-— Indian Wren., 90
--——— Streaked Fantail, 86
Waterhen, White-breasted, 298
Weaver-Bird, Common-, or
Baya, 124
-——_—_—-——- Striated, 126
Whimbrel, 336
Whitéeye, 160
Woodpecker, Golden-backed,172
—~+-_-—- Mahratta, 170
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