Birds of the Indian Hills Part 4

THE NECTARINIDae OR SUNBIRD FAMILY

The sunbirds are feathered exquisites. They take in the Old World the place in the New World occupied by the humming-birds. Sunbirds, however, are superior to humming-birds in that they possess the gift of song. They are not particularly abundant in the Himalayas, and, as they do not seem to occur west of Garhwal, I am perhaps not justified in giving them a place in this essay.

I do so because one species is fairly common round about Naini Tal.

I have seen this bird--the Himalayan yellow-backed sunbird (_aethopyga scheriae_)--flitting about, sucking honey from the flowers in the verandah of the hotel at the brewery below Naini Tal.

The head and neck of the c.o.c.k are glistening green. The back, shoulders, chin, throat, breast, and sides of the head are crimson.

The lower parts are greenish yellow. The two median tail feathers are longer than the others. The bill is long and curved. The hen is a comparatively dull greenish-brown bird.

THE DICaeIDae OR FLOWER-p.e.c.k.e.r FAMILY

The fire-breasted flower-p.e.c.k.e.r (_Dicaeum ignipectus_) is perhaps the smallest bird in India. Its total length does not exceed 3 inches.

The upper parts are greenish black and the lower parts buff. The c.o.c.k has a large patch of crimson on his breast, with a black patch lower down. As this species frequents lofty trees, it is usually seen from below, and the crimson breast renders the c.o.c.k unmistakeable.

THE PICIDae OR WOODp.e.c.k.e.r FAMILY

Woodp.e.c.k.e.rs abound in the well-wooded Himalayas.

The woodp.e.c.k.e.r most commonly seen in the western hill stations is the brown-fronted pied species (_Dendrocopus auriceps_). This is a black bird, spotted and barred with white: some might call it a white bird, heavily spotted and barred with black. The forehead is amber brown. That is the distinguis.h.i.+ng feature of this species. The c.o.c.k has a red-and-gold crest, which the hen lacks. Both s.e.xes rejoice in a crimson patch under the tail--a feature common to all species of pied woodp.e.c.k.e.r. _Dendrocopus auriceps_ nests earlier in the year than do most hill-birds, so that by the time the majority of the European visitors arrive in the hills, the young woodp.e.c.k.e.rs have left their nest, which is a hole excavated by the parents in a tree, a rhododendron by preference.

Two other species of pied woodp.e.c.k.e.r are common in the hills--the rufous-bellied (_Hypopicus hypererythrus_) and the Western Himalayan species (_Dendrocopus himalayensis_). The former is particularly abundant at Murree. These two species are distinguished from the brown-fronted pied woodp.e.c.k.e.r by having no brown on the forehead. The rufous abdomen serves to differentiate the rufous-bellied from the Western Himalayan species. The above woodp.e.c.k.e.rs are not much larger than mynas.

There remains yet another common species--the West Himalayan scaly-bellied green woodp.e.c.k.e.r (_Gecinus squamatus_). The English name of this bird is very c.u.mbrous. There is no help for this. Numerous adjectives and adjectival adjuncts are necessary to each species to distinguish it from each of the host of other woodp.e.c.k.e.rs. This particular species is larger than a crow and is recognisable by its green colour. It might be possible to condense an accurate description of the plumage of this bird into half a column of print. I will, however, refrain. There is a limit to the patience of even the Anglo-Indian.

THE CAPITONIDae OR BARBET FAMILY

The only member of this family common in the Himalayas is that fine bird known as the great Himalayan barbet (_Megalaema marshallorum_).

As this forms the subject of a separate essay, detailed description is unnecessary in the present one. It will suffice that the bird is over a foot in length and has a large yellow beak. Its prevailing hue is gra.s.s green. It has a bright red patch under the tail. It goes about in small flocks and constantly utters a loud plaintive dissyllabic note.

THE ALCEDINIDae OR KINGFISHER FAMILY

The Himalayan pied kingfisher (_Ceryle lugubris_) is a bird as large as a crow. Its plumage is speckled black and white, like that of a Hamburg fowl. It feeds entirely on fish, and frequents the larger hill streams. Its habit is to squat on a branch, or if the day be cloudy, on a boulder in mid-stream, whence it dives into the water after its quarry. Sometimes, kestrel-like, it hovers in the air on rapidly-vibrating pinions until it espies a fish in the water below, when it closes its wings and drops with a splash in the water, to emerge with a silvery object in its bill.

THE UPUPIDae OR HOOPOE FAMILY

The unique hoopoe (_Upupa epops_) next demands our attention. This is a bird about the size of a myna. The wings and tail are boldly marked with alternate bands of black and white. The remainder of the plumage is of a fawn colour. The bill is long and slender, like that of a snipe, but slightly curved. The crest is the feature that distinguishes the hoopoe from all other birds. This opens and closes like a lady's fan. Normally it remains closed, but when the bird is startled, and at the moment when the hoopoe alights on the ground, the crest opens to form a magnificent corona. Hoopoes seek their food on gra.s.s-covered land, digging insects out of the earth with their long, pick-like bills. They are very partial to a dust-bath. During the breeding season--that is to say, in April and May in the Himalayas--hoopoes continually utter in low tones _uk-uk-uk_. The call is not unlike that of the coppersmith, but less metallic and much more subdued. The flight of the hoopoe is undulating or jerky, like that of a b.u.t.terfly. Young hoopoes are reared up in a hole in a building, or in a bank. The nest is incredibly malodoriferous.

THE CYPSELIDae OR SWIFT FAMILY

The flight and general appearance of the swifts have already been described. The common Indian swift (_Cypselus affinis_) is perhaps the bird most frequently seen in the Himalayas. A small dark sooty brown bird with a broad white bar across the back, a living monoplane that dashes through the air at the rate of 100 miles an hour, continually giving vent to what Jerdon has so well described as a "s.h.i.+vering scream," can be none other than this species. It nests under the eaves of houses or in verandahs. Hundreds of these swifts nest in the Landour bazar, and there is scarcely a _dak_ bungalow or a deserted building in the whole of k.u.maun which does not afford nesting sites for at least a dozen pairs of swifts. About sunset these birds indulge in riotous exercise, das.h.i.+ng with loud screams in and out among the pillars that support the roof of the verandah in which their nests are placed. The nest is composed of mud and feathers and straw. The saliva of the swift is sticky and makes excellent cement.

The other swift commonly seen in the Himalayas is the Alpine swift (_Cypselus melba_). This is distinguishable from the Indian species by its white abdomen and dark rump. It is perhaps the swiftest flier among birds. Like the species already described, it utters a shrill cry when on the wing.

THE CUCULIDae OR CUCKOO FAMILY

It is not possible for anyone of sound hearing to be an hour in a hill station in the early summer without being aware of the presence of cuckoos. The Himalayas literally teem with them. From March to June, or even July, the cheerful double note of the common cuckoo (_Cuculus canorus_) emanates from every second tree. This species, as all the world knows, looks like a hawk and flies like a hawk.

According to some naturalists, the cuckoo profits by its similarity to a bird of prey. The little birds which it imposes upon are supposed to fly away in terror when they see it, thus allowing it to work unmolested its wicked will in their nests. My experience is that little birds have a habit of attacking birds of prey that venture near their nest. The presence of eggs or young ones makes the most timid creatures as bold as the proverbial lion. I therefore do not believe that these cuckoos which resemble birds of prey derive any benefit therefrom.

The hen European cuckoo differs very slightly from the c.o.c.k. In some species, as, for example, the famous "brain-fever bird"

(_Hierococcyx varius_), there is no external difference between the s.e.xes, while in others, such as the Indian koel (_Eudynamis honorata_), and the violet cuckoo (_Chrysococcyx xanthorhynchus_), the s.e.xes are very dissimilar. I commend these facts to the notice of those who profess to explain s.e.xual dimorphism (the different appearance of the s.e.xes) by means of natural or s.e.xual selection. The comfortable theory that the hens are less showily coloured than the c.o.c.ks, because they stand in greater need of protective colouring while sitting on the nest, cannot be applied to the parasitic cuckoos, for these build no nests, neither do they incubate their eggs.

In the Himalayas the common cuckoo victimises chiefly pipits, larks, and chats, but its eggs have been found in the nests of many other birds, including the magpie-robin, white-cheeked bulbul, spotted forktail, rufous-backed shrike, and the jungle babbler.

The eggs of _Cuculus canorus_ display considerable variation in colour. Those who are interested in the subject are referred to Mr.

Stuart Baker's papers on the Oology of the Indian Cuckoos in Volume XVII of the _Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society_.

It often happens that the eggs laid by the cuckoo are not unlike those of the birds in the nests of which they are deposited. Hence, some naturalists a.s.sert that the cuckoo, having laid an egg, flies about with it in her bill until she comes upon a clutch which matches her egg. Perhaps the best reply to this theory is that such refinement on the part of the cuckoo is wholly unnecessary. Most birds, when seized by the mania of incubation, will sit upon anything which even remotely resembles an egg.

Mr. Stuart Baker writes that he has not found that there is any proof of the cuckoo trying to match its eggs with those of the intended foster-mother, or that it selects a foster-mother whose eggs shall match its own. He adds that not one of his correspondents has advanced this suggestion, and states that he has little doubt that convenience of site and propinquity to the cuckoo about to lay its eggs are the main requisitions.

Almost indistinguishable from the common cuckoo in appearance is the Himalayan cuckoo (_Cuculus saturatus_). The call of this bird, which continues later in the year than that of the common cuckoo, is not unlike the _whoot-whoot-whoot_ of the crow-pheasant or coucal.

Perhaps it is even more like the _uk-uk-uk_ of the hoopoe repeated very loudly. It may be syllabised as _cuck-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo_. Not very much is known about the habits of this species. It is believed to victimise chiefly willow-warblers.

The Indian cuckoo (_Cuculus micropterus_) resembles in appearance the two species already described. Blanford speaks of its call as a fine melodious whistle. I would not describe the note as a whistle.

To me it sounds like _wherefore_, _wherefore_, impressively and sonorously intoned. The vernacular names _Boukotako_ and _Kyphulpakka_ are onomatopoetic, as is Broken Pekoe Bird, by which name the species is known to many Europeans.

Last, but not least of the common Himalayan cuckoos, are the famous brain-fever birds, whose crescendo _brain-fever_, _BRAIN-FEVER_, _BRAIN-FEVER_, which is shrieked at all hours of the day and the night, has called forth untold volumes of awful profanity from jaded Europeans living in the plains, and has earned the highest encomiums of Indians.

There are two species of brain-fever bird that disport themselves in the Himalayas. These are known respectively as the large and the common hawk-cuckoo (_Hierococcyx sparverioides_ and _H. varius_).

I do not profess to distinguish with certainty between the notes of these two birds, but am under the impression that the larger form is the one that makes itself heard at Naini Tal and Mussoorie.

The Indian koel (_Eudynamis honorata_) is not to be numbered among the common birds of the Himalayas. Its noisy call _kuil_, _kuil_, _kuil_, which may be expressed by the words _you're-ill_, _you're-ill_, _who-are-you?_ _who-are-you?_ is heard throughout the sub-Himalayan regions in the early summer, and I have heard it as high up as Rajpur below Mussoorie, but have not noticed the bird at any of the hill stations except Almora. As has already been stated, the avifauna of Almora, a little station in the inner hills nearly forty miles from the plains, is a very curious one. I have not only heard the koel calling there, but have seen a young koel being fed by crows. Now, at Almora alone of the hill stations does _Corvus splendens_, the Indian house-crow, occur, and this is the usual victim of the koel. I would therefore attribute the presence of the koel at Almora and its absence from other hill stations to the fact that at Almora alone the koel's dupe occurs.

THE PSITTACIDae OR PARROT FAMILY

The parrots are not strongly represented in the Himalayas. Only one species is commonly seen at the various hill stations. This is the slaty-headed paroquet (_Palaeornis schisticeps_). In appearance it closely resembles the common green parrot of the plains (_P.

torquatus_), differing chiefly in having the head slate coloured instead of green. The c.o.c.k, moreover, has a red patch on the shoulder.

The habits of the slaty-headed paroquet are those of the common green parrot: its cries, however, are less harsh, and it is less aggressively bold. The pretty little western blossom-headed paroquet (_P. cyanocephalus_) ascends the hills to a height of some 5000 feet.

It is recognisable by the fact that the head of the c.o.c.k is red, tinged with blue like the bloom on a plum.

THE STRIGIDae OR OWL FAMILY

We now come to those much-abused birds--the owls. The Himalayas, in common with most other parts of the world, are well stocked with these pirates of the night. The vast majority of owls, being strictly nocturnal, escape observation. Usually the presence of any species of owl in a locality is made known only by its voice. I may here remark that diurnal birds know as little about nocturnal birds as the man in the street does, hence the savage manner in which they mob any luckless owl that happens to be abroad in the daytime. Birds are intensely conservative; they resent strongly what they regard as an addition to the local avifauna. This a.s.sertion may be proved by setting free a c.o.c.katoo in the plains of India. Before the bird has been at large for ten minutes it will be surrounded by a mob of reviling crows.

The collared pigmy owlet (_Glaucidium brodiei_) is perhaps the commonest owl in the Himalayas: at any rate, it is the species that makes itself heard most often. Those who sit out of doors after dinner cannot fail to have remarked a soft low whistle heard at regular intervals of about thirty seconds. That is the call of the pigmy collared owlet. The owlet itself is a tiny creature, about the size of a sparrow. Like several other little owls, it sometimes shows itself during the daytime. Once at Mussoorie I noticed a pigmy collared owlet sitting as bold as bra.s.s on a conspicuous branch about midday and making grimaces at me. The other species likely to be heard at hill stations are the brown wood-owl (_Syrnium indrani_), the call of which has been syllabised _to-whoo_, and the little spotted Himalayan scops owl (_Scops spilocephalus_), of which the note is double whistle _who-who_.

THE VULTURIDae OR VULTURE FAMILY