A Bird Calendar for Northern India | Page 6

to put forth their great red flowers, but not until
March does each look like a great scarlet nosegay.
The patches of sugar-cane grow smaller day by day, and in nearly every
village the little presses are at work from morn till eve.
From the guava groves issue the rattle of tin pots and the shouts of the
boys told off to protect the ripening fruit from the attacks of crows,
parrots and other feathered marauders. Nor do these sounds terminate at
night-fall; indeed they become louder after dark, for it is then that the
flying-foxes come forth and work sad havoc among fruit of all
descriptions.

The fowls of the air are more vivacious than they were in January. The
bulbuls tinkle more blithely, the purple sunbirds sing more lustily; the
kutur, kutur, kuturuk of the green barbets is uttered more vociferously;
the nuthatches now put their whole soul into their loud, sharp
tee-tee-tee-tee, the hoopoes call uk-uk-uk more vigorously.
The coppersmiths (Xantholaema haematocephala) begin to hammer on
their anvils--tonk-tonk-tonk-tonk, softly and spasmodically in the early
days of the month, but with greater frequency and intensity as the days
pass. The brain-fever bird (Hierococcyx varius) announces his arrival
in the United Provinces by uttering an occasional "brain-fever." As the
month draws to its close his utterances become more frequent. But his
time is not yet. He merely gives us in February a foretaste of what is to
come.
The tew of the black-headed oriole (Oriolus melanocephalus), which is
the only note uttered by the bird in the colder months, is occasionally
replaced in February by the summer call of the species--a liquid,
musical peeho. In the latter half of the month the Indian robin
(Thamnobia cambayensis) begins to find his voice. Although not the
peer of his English cousin, he is no mean singer. At this time of year,
however, his notes are harsh. He is merely "getting into form."
The feeble, but sweet, song of the crested lark or Chandul is one of the
features of February. The Indian skylark likewise may now be heard
singing at Heaven's gate in places where there are large tracts of
uncultivated land. As in January so in February the joyous "Think of
me ... Never to be" of the grey-headed flycatcher emanates from every
tope.
By the middle of the month the pied wagtails and pied bush chats are in
full song. Their melodies, though of small volume, are very sweet.
The large grey shrikes add the clamour of their courtship to the avian
chorus.
Large numbers of doves, vultures, eagles, red-headed merlins, martins
and munias--birds whose nests were described in January--are still busy

feeding their young.
The majority of the brown fish-owls (Ketupa ceylonensis) and rock
horned-owls (Bubo bengalensis) are sitting; a few of them are feeding
young birds. The dusky horned-owls (B. coromandus) have either
finished breeding or are tending nestlings. In addition to the nests of the
above-mentioned owls those of the collared scops owl (Scops
bakkamaena) and the mottled wood-owl (Syrnium ocellatum) are likely
to be found at this season of the year. The scops is a small owl with
aigrettes or "horns," the wood-owl is a large bird without aigrettes.
Both nest in holes in trees and lay white eggs after the manner of their
kind. The scops owl breeds from January till April, while February and
March are the months in which to look for the eggs of the wood-owl.
In the western districts of the United Provinces the Indian
cliff-swallows (Hirundo fluvicola) are beginning to construct their
curious nests. Here and there a pair of blue rock-pigeons (_Colombia
intermedia_) is busy with eggs or young ones. In the Punjab the ravens
are likewise employed.
The nesting season of the hoopoe has now fairly commenced.
Courtship is the order of the day. The display of this beautiful species is
not at all elaborate. The bird that "shows off" merely runs along the
ground with corona fully expanded. Mating hoopoes, however, perform
strange antics in the air; they twist and turn and double, just as a
flycatcher does when chasing a fleet insect. Both the hoopoe and the
roller are veritable aerial acrobats. By the end of the month all but a
few of the hoopoes have begun to nest; most of them have eggs, while
the early birds, described in January as stealing a march on their
brethren, are feeding their offspring. The 6th February is the earliest
date on which the writer has observed a hoopoe carrying food to the
nest; that was at Ghazipur.
March and April are the months in which the majority of coppersmiths
or crimson-breasted barbets rear up their families. Some, however, are
already working at their nests. The eggs are hatched in a cavity in a
tree--a cavity made by means