Birds of the Indian Hills Part 9

THE CUCULIDae OR CUCKOO FAMILY

82. _Cuculus canorus_. The common or European cuckoo.

83. _Cuculus saturatus_. The Himalayan cuckoo.

84. _Cuculus poliocephalus_. The small cuckoo. This is very like the common cuckoo in appearance, but it is considerably smaller. Its loud unmusical call has been syllabised _pichu-giapo_.

85. _Cuculus micropterus_. The Indian cuckoo.

86. _Hierococcyx varius_. The common hawk-cuckoo.

87. _Hierococcyx sparverioides_. The large hawk-cuckoo.

THE PSITTACIDae OR PARROT FAMILY

88. _Palaeornis schisticeps_. The slaty-headed paroquet. This bird is not nearly so common in the Eastern as in the Western Himalayas.

THE STRIGIDae OR OWL FAMILY

89. _Glaucidium brodei_. The collared pigmy owlet.

90. _Syrnium indrani_. The brown wood-owl.

91. _Scops spilocephalus_. The spotted Himalayan scops owl.

THE VULTURIDae OR VULTURE FAMILY

92. _Gyps himalayensis_. The Himalayan griffon.

93. _Pseudogyps bengalensis_. The white-backed vulture.

THE FALCONIDae OR FAMILY OF BIRDS OF PREY

94. _Aquila helica_. The imperial eagle.

95. _Hieraetus fasciatus_. Bonelli's eagle.

96. _Ictinaetus malayensis_. The black eagle. This is easily recognised by its dark, almost black, plumage.

97. _Spilornis cheela_. The crested serpent eagle.

98. _Milvus govinda_. The common pariah kite.

99. _Tinnunculus alaudaris_. The kestrel.

THE COLUMBIDae OR DOVE FAMILY

100. _Sphenocercus sphenurus_. The kokla green-pigeon.

101. _Turtur suratensis_. The spotted dove.

102. _Macropygia tusalia_. The bar-tailed cuckoo-dove.

THE PHASIANIDae OR PHEASANT FAMILY

103. _Gennaeus leucomela.n.u.s_. The Nepal kalij pheasant. This is the only pheasant at all common about Darjeeling. It is distinguished from the white-crested kalij pheasant by the c.o.c.k having a glossy blue-black crest. The hens of the two species resemble one another closely in appearance.

104. _Coturnix communis_. The grey quail.

105. _Arboricola torqueola_. The common hill partridge.

106. _Francolinus vulgaris_. The black partridge. Fairly common at elevations below 4000 feet.

THE CHARADRIIDae OR PLOVER FAMILY

107. _Scolopax rusticola_. The woodc.o.c.k.

In the summer this bird is not likely to be seen below alt.i.tudes of 8000 feet above the sea-level.

_t.i.tS AT WORK_

The average Himalayan house is such a ramshackle affair that it is a miracle how it holds together. The roof does not fit properly on to the walls, and in these latter there are cracks and c.h.i.n.ks galore.

Perhaps it is due to these defects that hill houses do not fall down more often than they do.

Thanks to their numerous cracks they do not offer half the resistance to a gale of wind that a well-built house would.

Be this as it may, the style of architecture that finds favour in the hills is quite a G.o.dsend to the birds, or rather to such of the feathered folk as nestle in holes. A house in the Himalayas is, from an avian point of view, a maze of nesting sites, a hotel in which unfurnished rooms are always available.

The sparrow usually monopolises these nesting sites. He is a regular dog-in-the-manger, for he keeps other birds out of the holes he himself cannot utilise. However, the sparrow is not quite ubiquitous.

In most large hill stations there are more houses than he is able to monopolise.

I recently spent a couple of days in one of such, in a house situated some distance from the bazaar, a house surrounded by trees.

Two green-backed t.i.ts (_Parus monticola_) were busy preparing a nursery for their prospective offspring in one of the many holes presented by the building in question. This had once been a respectable bungalow, surrounded by a broad verandah. But the day came when it fell into the hands of a boarding-house keeper, and it shared the fate of all buildings to which this happens. The verandahs were enclosed and divided up by part.i.tions, to form, in the words of the advertis.e.m.e.nt, "fine, large, airy rooms." There can be no doubt as to their airiness, but captious persons might dispute their t.i.tle to the other epithets. A _kachcha_ verandah had been thrown out with a galvanised iron roof and wooden supporting pillars. The subsequently-added roof did not fit properly on to that of the original verandah, and there was a considerable c.h.i.n.k between the beam that supported it and the wall that enclosed the old verandah, so that the house afforded endless nesting sites. An inch-wide crack is quite large enough to admit of the pa.s.sage of a t.i.t; when this was negotiated the s.p.a.ce between the old and the new roof afforded endless possibilities. Small wonder, then, that a pair of t.i.ts had elected to nest there.

The green-backed t.i.t is one of the most abundant birds in the Himalayas.