A Bird Calendar for Northern India | Page 9

cages,
which, when exposed to the sun in 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 winnowing fan.
The air is heavily scented with the inconspicuous inflorescences of the
mangos (Mangifera indica). The pipals (Ficus religiosa) are shedding
their leaves; the sheshams (Dalbergia sissoo) are assuming their
emerald spring foliage.
The garden, the jungle and the forest are beautified by the gorgeous
reds of the flowers of the silk-cotton tree (Bombax malabarica), the
Indian coral tree (Erythrina indica) and the flame-of-the-forest (Butea
frondosa). The sub-Himalayan forests become yellow-tinted owing to
the fading of the leaves of the sal (Shorea robusta), many of which are
shed in March. The sal, however, is never entirely leafless; the young
foliage appears as the old drops off; while this change is taking place
the minute pale yellow flowers open out.
The familiar yellow wasps, which have been hibernating during the
cold weather, emerge from their hiding-places and begin to construct
their umbrella-shaped nests or combs, which look as if they were made
of rice-paper.
March is a month of great activity for the birds. Those that constituted
the avian chorus of February continue to sing, and to their voices are
now added those of many other minstrels. Chief of these is the pied
singer of Ind--the magpie-robin or dhayal--whose song is as beautiful
as that of the English robin at his best. From the housetops the brown
rock-chat begins to pour forth his exceedingly sweet lay. The Indian

robin is in full song. The little golden ioras, hidden away amid dense
foliage, utter their many joyful sounds. The brain-fever bird grows
more vociferous day by day. The crow-pheasants, which have been
comparatively silent during the colder months of the year, now begin to
utter their low sonorous whoot, whoot, whoot, which is heard chiefly at
dawn.
Everywhere the birds are joyful and noisy; nowhere more so than at the
silk-cotton and the coral trees. These, although botanically very
different, display many features in common. They begin to lose their
leaves soon after the monsoon is over, and are leafless by the end of the
winter. In the early spring, while the tree is still devoid of foliage, huge
scarlet, crimson or yellow flowers emerge from every branch. Each
flower is plentifully supplied with honey; it is a flowing bowl of which