from others of its kind by the curious snapping noise it makes as
it flits from bush to bush. It occurs in pairs or singly. Davison
remarks that it is "very fond of working its way up to some conspicuous
post--to the top of one of the long flower-stalks of _Lobelia excelsa_,
for instance--where it will halt for a minute or two, and then, after
making a feeble attempt at a song, will dive suddenly in the brushwood
and disappear."

THE LANIIDAE OR SHRIKE FAMILY

Shrikes or butcher-birds are hawks in miniature, as regards habits
if not in structure. With the exception of the brown shrike (_Lanius
cristatus_), which is merely a winter visitor to India, the
rufous-backed shrike (_L. erythronotus_) is the only butcher-bird
common on the Nilgiris. The head of this species is pale grey, the
back is of ruddy hue. The lower parts are white. The forehead and
a broad band running through the eye are black. A bird having a broad
black band through the eye is probably a shrike, and if the bird in
question habitually sits on an exposed branch or other point of
vantage, and from thence swoops on to the ground to secure some insect,
the probability of its being a butcher-bird becomes a certainty.

Closely related to the shrikes are the minivets. Minivets are birds
of tit-like habits which wander about in small flocks from place to
place picking insects from the leaves of trees. They are essentially
arboreal birds. I have never seen a minivet on the ground.

The common minivet of the Nilgiris is the orange minivet
(_Pericrocotus flammeus_). The head and back of the cock are black.
His wings are black and flame-colour, the red being so arranged as
to form a band running lengthwise and not across the wing. The tail
feathers are red, save the median pair, which are black. During flight
the flashing red obliterates the black, so that the moving birds
resemble tongues of flame and present a beautiful and striking
spectacle. The hen is marked like the cock, but in her the red is
replaced by bright yellow. This beautiful bird ceases to be abundant
at elevations higher than Coonoor.

THE ORIOLIDAE OR ORIOLE FAMILY

Both the Indian oriole (_Oriolus kundoo_) and the black-headed oriole
(_O. melanocephalus_) occur on the Nilgiris, but on the higher ranges
they are nowhere numerous. They therefore merit only passing notice.

THE STURNIDAE OR STARLING FAMILY

The common myna of the Nilgiris is not _Acridotheres tristis_ but
_AEthiop