A Bird Calendar for Northern India | Page 3

of the living. These two species, more
especially the latter, seem to dislike the cold weather. They revel in the
heat; it is when the thermometer stands at something over 100 degrees
in the shade that they feel like giants refreshed, and repeat their loud
calls with wearying insistence throughout the hours of daylight.
The nuthatches begin to tune up in January. They sing with more cheer
than harmony, their love-song being a sharp penetrating
tee-tee-tee-tee-tee.
The hoopoe reminds us of his presence by an occasional soft uk-uk-uk.
His breeding season, like that of the nuthatch, is about to begin.
The magpie-robin or dhayal, who for months past has uttered no sound,
save a scolding note when occasion demanded, now begins to make
melody. His January song, however, is harsh and crude, and not such as
to lead one to expect the rich deep-toned music that will compel
admiration in April, May and June.
Towards the end of the month the fluty call of the koel, another
hot-weather chorister, may be heard in the eastern portions of northern
India.

Most of the cock sunbirds cast off their workaday plumage and
assumed their splendid metallic purple wedding garment in November
and December, a few, however, do not attain their full glory until
January. By the end of the month it is difficult to find a cock that is not
bravely attired from head to tail in iridescent purple.
Comparatively few birds build their nests in January. Needless to state,
doves' nests containing eggs may be found at this season as at all other
seasons. It is no exaggeration to assert that some pairs of doves rear up
seven or eight broods in the course of the year. The consequence is that,
notwithstanding the fact that the full clutch consists of but two eggs,
doves share with crows, mynas, sparrows and green parrots the
distinction of being the most successful birds in India.
The nest of the dove is a subject over which most ornithologists have
waxed sarcastic. One writer compares the structure to a bundle of
spillikins. Another says, "Upset a box of matches in a bush and you
will have produced a very fair imitation of a dove's nursery!"
According to a third, the best way to make an imitation dove's nest is to
take four slender twigs, lay two of them on a branch and then place the
remaining two crosswise on top of the first pair. For all this, the dove's
nest is a wonderful structure; it is a lesson in how to make a little go a
long way. Doves seem to place their nurseries haphazard on the first
branch or ledge they come across after the spirit has moved them to
build. The nest appears to be built solely on considerations of hygiene.
Ample light and air are a sine qua non; concealment appears to be a
matter of no importance.
In India winter is the time of year at which the larger birds of prey, both
diurnal and nocturnal, rear up their broods. Throughout January the
white-backed vultures are occupied in parental duties. The breeding
season of these birds begins in October or November and ends in
February or March. The nest, which is placed high up in a lofty tree, is
a large platform composed of twigs which the birds themselves break
off from the growing tree. Much amusement may be derived from
watching the struggles of a white-backed vulture when severing a tough
branch. Its wing-flapping and its tugging cause a great commotion in

the tree. The boughs used by vultures for their nests are mostly covered
with green leaves. These last wither soon after the branch has been
plucked, so that, after the first few days of its existence, the nest looks
like a great ball of dead leaves caught in a tree.
The nurseries of birds of prey can be described neither as picturesque
nor as triumphs of architecture, but they have the great merit of being
easy to see. January is the month in which to look for the eyries of
Bonelli's eagles (Hieraetus fasciatus); not that the search is likely to be
successful. The high cliffs of the Jumna and the Chambal in the Etawah
district are the only places where the nests of this fine eagle have been
recorded in the United Provinces. Mr. A. J. Currie has found the nest
on two occasions in a mango tree in a tope at Lahore. In each case the
eyrie was a flat platform of sticks about twice the size of a kite's nest.
The ground beneath the eyrie was littered with fowls' feathers and
pellets of skin, fur and bone. Most of these pellets contained squirrels'
skulls; and Mr. Currie actually saw one of the parent birds fly to the
nest