Chapter XLIV: Birds at Sunset

It is refreshing to watch the birds at the sunset hour. The fowls of the air are then full to overflowing of healthy activity.

In the garden the magpie-robin (_Copsychus saularis_), daintily clothed in black and white, vigorously pours forth his joyous song from some leafy bough. From the thicket issue the sharp notes of the tailor-bird (_Orthotomus sutorius_), the noisy chatter of the seven sisters (_Crateropus_), and the tinkling melody of the bulbul.

The king crows (_Dicrurus ater_) are alternately catching insects on the wing and giving vent to their superfluous energy in the form of cheerful notes. Upon the lawn the perky, neatly-built mynas are chasing grasshoppers with relentless activity; nimble wagtails are accounting for numbers of the smaller insects, while the showy-crested hoopoes are eagerly extracting grubs and other good things from the earth by means of their long forceps-like bill. All, especially the hoopoes, have the air of birds racing against time. On that part of the lawn which the _malli_ is flooding to preserve its greenness the crows are thoroughly enjoying their evening bath.

On the sandy path is a company of green bee-eaters (_Merops viridis_) engaged in dust-bath operations.

Overhead the swifts—our little land albatrosses—are dashing hither and thither at full speed, revelling in the abundant insect life called forth by the fading light, and making the welkin ring with their “shivering screams.” Flying along with the swifts are some sand-martins (_Cotile sinensis_), easily distinguishable by their slower and more laboured motion.

High above the sphere of action of the swifts and martins are numbers of kites and vultures, sailing in circles on their quest for the wherewithal to satisfy their insatiable appetite.

As the darkness begins to gather these birds, one and all, put more energy into their movements. Each seems to be aware of the rapid approach of the night when work must cease, and each appears fully determined not to lose a moment of the precious daylight.

While the sun is still well above the horizon great flocks of mynas sweep swiftly overhead towards the dense clump of bamboo bushes in which they will spend the night. They are joined by other species of starling. Before settling among the bamboos they perch in trees hard by, and make a joyful noise; every now and then some of the throng take to their wings and perform, like trained soldiers, a series of rapid evolutions. When at length the gloom compels them reluctantly to desist from their vigorous exercise, and to disappear into the bamboo clump, they give out energy in the form of loud clamour.

From the grove of tall trees yonder, where thousands of crows will spend the hours of darkness, an even greater noise issues. Some twenty minutes before the sun dips below the horizon the advance guard of the corvi arrives; then, for the succeeding quarter-hour, continuous streams of crows come pouring in from east and west, from north and south.

Meanwhile the sparrows have been foregathering in their hundreds in the low shrubs that fringe the edge of the garden. And what a dissonance issues from those bushes!

Truly phenomenal is the activity of the birds at eventide. It is especially marked in India, where during the middle of the day the sun nearly always shines fierce and hot, so that the birds are glad to enjoy a siesta in the grateful shade. From this they emerge like giants refreshed.

This liveliness of the feathered folk at sunset is no small matter. It is one of the most pleasing facts of natural history. It shows how immensely birds enjoy life. It proves how healthy, how full of energy they are, how they, to speak figuratively, live within their incomes.

Contrast such scenes as those described above with what may be seen in the City of London at six o’clock on a weekday. A multitude of pale, anxious, worn-looking men, and thin, tired, haggard women pursue with listless steps their homeward way. Compared with the lot of these, how happy is that of the birds.

Birds are, like children, loath to go to bed. They feel no weariness, and so great is their enjoyment of life, that they are almost sorry when the sun disappears for a little.

Jules Michelet, than whom no more wrong-headed naturalist ever lived, declares that birds dread the night. “Heavy,” he writes, “for all creatures is the gloom of evening. . . . Night is equally terrible for the birds. . . . What monsters it conceals, what frightful chances for the bird lurk in its obscurity. Its nocturnal foes have this characteristic in common—their approach is noiseless. The screech-owl flies with a silent wing, as if wrapped in tow. The weasel insinuates its long body into the nest without disturbing a leaf. The eager polecat, athirst for the warm life-blood, is so rapid that in a moment it bleeds both parents and progeny, and slaughters a whole family.

“It seems that the bird, when it has little ones, enjoys a second sight for these dangers. It has to protect a family far more feeble and more helpless than that of the quadruped, whose young can walk as soon as born. But how protect them? It can do nothing but remain at its post and die; it cannot fly away, for its love has broken its wings. All night the narrow entry of the nest is guarded by the father, who sinks with fatigue, and opposes danger with feeble beak and shaking head. What will this avail if the enormous jaw of the serpent suddenly appears, or the horrible eye of the bird of death, immeasurably enlarged by fear?”

Greater nonsense than this was never penned outside a political pamphlet. Birds do not, as Michelet seems to imagine, go to sleep quaking with terror. They know not the meaning of the word death, nor have they any superstitious fears of ghosts and goblins.

Birds with young sleep the sleep of a man without a single care.

At other times birds do not roost in solitude, but gather together in great companies, the members of which are as jolly as the young folks at a supper party after the theatre. The happiness of the fowls of the air at the sunset hour is almost riotous.

Darkness, however, exercises a soothing influence over them. A feeling of sleepiness steals over them, and they then doubtless experience the luxurious sensation of tiredness which we human beings feel after a day spent in the open air; for, although they know it not, their muscles are tired as the result of the activity of the day.

Their sweet slumbers completely refresh them. Before dawn they are awake again, and are up and about waiting for it to grow sufficiently light to enable them to resume the interrupted pleasures of the previous day.

With the exception of “The Education of Young Birds,” which came out in _The Albany Review_, the chapters which compose this book appeared in one or other of the following Indian periodicals: _The Madras Mail_, _The Times of India_, _The Indian Daily Telegraph_, _The Indian Field_, _The Indian Forester_.

The author begs to tender his thanks to the several editors for permission to reproduce this collection of essays.

GLOSSARY

_Bandobast._ Arrangement.

_Bhimraj._ The racket-tailed drongo (_Dissemurus paradiseus_).

_Chabutra._ A masonry platform, erected outside the bungalow in the compound on which people sit in the evenings during the hot weather.

_Chamar._ The name of a low caste of Indians who skin animals and tan their skin.

_Chaprassi._ Lit., a badge-wearer. A servant who runs messages.

_Chik._ A number of thin pieces of bamboo strung together to form a curtain. _Chiks_ are usually hung in front of doors and windows in India with the object of keeping out insects, but not air.

_Chota hazri._ Early morning tea.

_Dak bungalow._ Government rest-house.

_Jhil._ A lake or any natural depression which is filled with rain water all the year round or only at certain seasons.

_Kankar._ Lumps of limestone with which roads are metalled in Northern India.

_Koi Hai._ Lit., Is anyone there? The expression used in India to summon a servant, bells being non-existent in that country.

_Lathi._ A club or long stick often studded with nails to make it a more formidable weapon.

_Madar plant._ _Calotropis gigantea._

_Mohwa._ _Bassia latifolia._

_Murghi._ A fowl or chicken.

_Nullah._ A ravine.

_Ryot._ A cultivator or small farmer.

_Sahib._ Sir, or a gentleman. A term used to denote a European.

_Sath Bhai._ Any of the various species of Crateropus babblers.

_Shikari._ One who goes out shooting or hunting.

_Swadeshi._ A jingoistic term meaning Indian.

_Terai._ Lit., moist land. A low-lying tract of land running along the foot of the Himalayas.

_Tope._ A grove of trees.

_Topi._ A sun-helmet.

INDEX

A
_Ablak_, 197
_Accentor modularis_, 231
_Accipiter nisus_, 39
_Acridotheres fuscus_, 190
_— tristis_, 41, 76, 171, 198
Actions of animals, interpretation of, 68-71
Adam, Mr. R. M., 20
Adaptability to climate of birds, 241
Adjutant, 5, 6
_Æsalon regulus_, 42
Aitken, Mr. Benjamin, 36, 48
Alphéraky, 151
_Alseonax latirostris_, 179
Amadavat, 97
_Ammomanes_, 203
_— phœnicura_, 207
_Anas anser_, 150
Anderson, Mr. A., 140, 141, 159, 207, 223
_Anser cinereus_, 150
_— ferus_, 150
_— rubirostris_, 151
_Arachnechthra asiatica_, 176
_— lotenia_, 175
_Ardeola grayii_, 111
_Argya caudata_, 69
_— malcomi_, 227, 229, 231
Arnold, Sir Edwin, 220
_Astur badius_, 42
_— palabarius_, 38
_Athene brama_, 73, 209

B
Babbler, 14, 117, 190, 220-6
—, brotherhoods, 220-6
—, common, 69, 70, 214-9
—, large grey, 227-32
—, mad, 227-32
—, yellow-eyed, 176, 233-6
Baker, Mr. E. C. Stuart, 119
Ball, Mr., 142
Bank myna, 210
Barbet, 116
Barrington, 246
Bates, 183
Bateson, 123
Baynes, Mr. E. H., 245, 246
Bee-eater, little green, 4, 33, 51-5, 184, 254
Bennet, 98
_Bhairi_, 41
Bhimraj, 8, 126, 129
Bird of the open plain, 202-7
_Birds and Man_, 146, 239
_Bird Watching_, 71
Blackbird, 33
Blackwall, Mr. John, 247
Blanford, Dr., 8, 10, 14, 26, 84, 85, 95, 156
Bligh, 135
“Blue jay,” 4, 75, 171
_Bombax malabaricum_, 208
_Bombay Ducks_, 133
_Brachypternus aurantius_, 74
Brahminy duck, 149, 150, 153
— myna, 16
Brain-fever bird, 223
_Bubulcus coromandus_, 189
Bulbul, 212, 248, 249, 253
—, green, 116-20
Burroughs, John, 4, 46
_Butastur teesa_, 32-6
Butcher bird, 34, 45-50
Butler, 143
Butler, Colonel, 20, 113
Buzzard, 47
—, white-eyed, 32-6