curlews, ibises and spoonbills; the birds that live among sedges and
reeds--the snipe, reed-warblers, purple coots and water-rails. Then
there are the birds that fly overhead--the great kite-like ospreys
that frequently check their flight to drop into the water with a big
splash, in order to secure a fish; the kingfishers that dive so neatly
as barely to disturb the smooth surface of the lake when they enter
and leave it; the graceful terns that pick their food off the face of
the _jhil_; the swifts and swallows that feed on the insects which
always hover over still water.

Go where we will, be it to the sun-steeped garden, the shady mango
grove, the dusty road, the grassy plain, the fallow field, or among
the growing crops, there do we find bird life in abundance and food in
plenty to support it.

This is not the breeding season, therefore the bird choir is not at
its best, nevertheless the feathered folk everywhere proclaim the
pleasure of existence by making a joyful noise. From the crowded
_jhil_ emanate the sweet twittering of the wagtails, the clanging call
of the geese, the sibilant note of the whistling teal, the curious
_a-onk_ of the brahminy ducks, the mewing of the jacanas and the
quacking of many kinds of ducks. Everywhere in the fields and the
groves are heard the cawing of the crows, the wailing of the kites,
the cooing of the doves, the twittering of the sparrows, the crooning
of the white-eyes, the fluting of the wood-shrikes, the tinkling of
the bulbuls, the chattering of the mynas, the screaming of the green
parrots, the golden-backed woodpeckers and the white-breasted
kingfishers, the mingled harmony and discord of the tree-pies, the
sharp monosyllabic notes of the various warblers, the melody of the
sunbirds and the flycatchers. The green barbets also call
spasmodically throughout the month, chiefly in the early morning and
the late afternoon, but the only note uttered by the coppersmith is a
soft _wow_. The hoopoe emits occasionally a spasmodic _uk-uk-uk_.

The migrating birds continue to pour into India during the earlier
part of November. The geese are the last to arrive, they begin to come
before the close of October, and, from the second week of November
onwards, V-shaped flocks of these fine birds may be seen or heard
overhead at any hour of the day or night.

The nesting activities of the fowls of the air are at their lowest ebb
in November. Some thirty species are known to rear up young