the hot weather, as they often are,
must be veritable infernos.

The courtship of a pair of green parrots is as amusing to watch as
that of any 'Arry and 'Arriet. Not possessing hats the amorous birds
are unable to exchange them, but otherwise their actions are quite
coster-like. The female twists herself into all manner of ridiculous
postures and utters low twittering notes. The cock sits at her side
and admires. Every now and then he shows his appreciation of her
antics by tickling her head with his beak or by joining his bill to
hers.

Both the grey shrike and the wood-shrike begin nesting operations in
February. As, however, most of their nests are likely to be found
later in the year they are dealt with in the calendar for March.

MARCH

And all the jungle laughed with nesting songs,
And all the thickets rustled with small life
Of lizard, bee, beetle, and creeping things
Pleased at the spring time. In the mango sprays
The sun-birds flashed; alone at his green forge
Toiled the loud coppersmith;...
ARNOLD, _The Light of Asia_.

In March the climate of the plains of the United Provinces varies from
place to place. In the western sub-Himalayan tracts, as in the Punjab,
the weather still leaves little to be desired. The sun indeed is
powerful; towards the end of the month the maximum shade temperature
exceeds 80 degrees, but the nights and early mornings are delightfully
cool. In all the remaining parts of the United Provinces, except the
extreme south, temperate weather prevails until nearly the end of the
month. In the last days the noonday heat becomes so great that many
persons close their bungalows for several hours daily to keep them
cool, the outer temperature rising to ninety in the shade. At night,
however, the temperature drops to 65 degrees. In the extreme south of
the Province the hot weather sets in by the middle of March. The sky
assumes a brazen aspect and, at midday, the country is swept by
westerly winds which seem to come from a titanic blast furnace.

The spring crops grow more golden day by day. The mustard is the first
to ripen. The earlier-sown fields are harvested in March in the
eastern and southern parts of the country. The spring cereals are cut
by hand sickles, the grain is then husked by the tramping of cattle,
and, lastly, the chaff is separated from the grain on the threshing
floor, the hot burning wind often acting as a natural winn