Pet Birds of Bengal

Front matter

PET BIRDS OF BENGAL(SONG BIRDS)

Calcutta Oriental Series No. 10. E. 4

PET BIRDS OF BENGAL

Foreword

FOREWORD

One of the crying needs of aviculture has been a pioneer, up-to-date and comprehensive volume on the wonderful bird-fauna of India, written not merely for the field naturalist but also for the lover of pets, with a sympathetic insight into the difficulties of a keeper of birds. The present readable and reliable work supplies this want.

Mr. Law needs no introduction to the Zoological public. Himself a fine naturalist and a keen observer, he has the happy faculty of presenting to his readers a vivid picture of the events that he records from time to time in the various natural history journals. As the editor of the Natureland, it has been my privilege to be in special touch with his ornithological studies. All the birds dealt with in this volume have lived in Mr. Law's aviaries, and he has set forth nothing that has not come under his personal observation.

By a happy inspiration, the birds are designated by their Indian names, their English titles being given a subsidiary place, thus rendering the work of local as well as of general interest. Those of us who are interested in Shamas and Dhyals, in Bulbuls and Drongos, would, I am sure, heartily welcome this work.

Graham Renshaw.

Preface

The conquest of Nature, that has been advancing apace with the spread of material civilisation, has been putting difficulties in the way of man's free communion with Nature. The music that cheered him up spontaneously in his rural or urban environments at a time when he did not assert his independence of Nature, has now to be enjoyed through special efforts for securing and preserving it within reach. The truth of this will be realised to some extent by visits to a city like Calcutta or London where the rattling of carriage-wheels and the grunting of bus-horns make it difficult to even turn one's thought to a past enjoyment of avine music amidst natural scenery. Many of us feel this want caused by the progress of our material civilisation and try to make up for it by periodical excursions into villages, marshes, jungles and forests where Nature still has her citadel unassailed or unaffected. Such were the excursions made at times by President Roosevelt who used to refresh himself as also to satisfy his insatiable curiosity about the avine community by roaming about in the prairies and jungles of the United States or in the dense forests of far-off Africa; it was also the practice of the distinguished British ex-minister Viscount Grey who, not content with the stray song of a Robin at his window or a Finch in his garden, ran away from the cares of Whitehall into places where birds sang in chorus or poured forth floods of music in their unmolested natural abodes. Many lovers of bird-music may be of the habit which soothed the two statesmen in their gnawing cares, but there are others who want to have the remedy within easy reach. They will have the pleasure of the distant hills and dales as far as possible within the city itself, in their own garden, or in the public grounds hard by. The pleasure is derived of course through suggestion and imitation on a small scale, like the scenery reproduced on a stage to represent the actual scenery stretching for miles. This offers scope for the application of the highest human art and ingenuity, for there in the aviaries or on the open ground is to be made such a blending of of Nature and Art that the latter may hide its identity and be mistaken for the former. This blending of art and nature is meant to delude not only the human spectators visiting the place for pleasure, but also its feathered inmates who must feel there quite at home and take the amenities of the artificial dales and woodlands to be the same as those in their former rural or sylvan habitat. Flitting, roaming or hopping from place to place or branch to branch; mating, nesting, and rearing their young; chirruping, cooing, and carolling to their hearts' content; loving instead of resenting the restraint on their freedom if they mind it at all, they would enjoy their existence quite as much as the human visitors who take to these resorts in their spare half-hours to watch the habits and movements of their feathered companions for delight and study. It is here that the skill and experience of the aviculturist become a necessity; it is here that the utility of ornithology as a branch of human knowledge becomes patent. The reproduction of conditions pleasant to the birds, and suitable to their ways of living, is possible only to a specialist who has a deep and intimate knowledge of bird-life. It is the application of this knowledge that serves to keep alive the birds in the artificial conditions of the aviary and enable them to thrive there. It also supplies the means by which the bounds of human knowledge in regard to birds may be made wider and wider; for the aviaries are the laboratories of the ornithologist and it is through them that aviculture has become a handmaid of ornithology. The study of bird-life in Nature is beset with difficulties, and if we rely exclusively on the field observations of the ornithologist, we may have to wait long, and, in many instances, in vain. The field observer can not observe a particular bird the whole year through, and has, therefore, to glean facts in many cases from chance observations which may be misleading. The aviculturist, on the other hand, gets an opportunity of studying a bird for years in a scientific way and, if he does so, he can get at many truths regarding its nidification, courting, nesting etc., which are of the greatest interest and importance not only to a systematist for the purposes of classification, but also to a student of evolution. It is possible, therefore, through aviculture, to have not merely immediate pleasure and bits of knowledge of bird-life, the utility of which is admitted even by men with a practical turn of mind, but also to pursue their highest ideals of extending knowledge for the sake of know- ledge, the immediate utility of which, though not so easily understood, is, nevertheless, very great on account of the fact that it alone can create the conditions through which discoveries of the highest importance become a possibility.

The practice of keeping birds in captivity dates in India from remote antiquity. The Vedic literature contains many references to talking birds like Mynahs and Parrots which were regarded as common favourites at the time. Pigeons. were regarded as household birds of good omen. Accounts are available as to the caging of parrots at the time of Alexander the Great's invasion of India. This great warrior took away from here a number of ring-necked parrots which are known to this day as Alexandrine Parrakeets. Ælian informs us that "in India there were many parrots which were held sacred by the Brahmans because they could imitate human speech, and which were therefore neither killed nor captured by the Indians." This statement is not wholly correct, because the talking propensity of the birds was discovered in captivity, and there was no sentiment among the people against the practice of caging them. The keeping of birds in aviaries, instead of in small cages, is noticed in the Mrichchhakatika, a sanskrit drama of about the 4th century A.D. The caging of talking birds for the adornment of houses and for pleasure was widely practised in ancient India, but evidences are meagre as to the caging of singing birds for the same purposes. Bigger birds like Saruses (Cranes), Peafowl, Raj-hans (Flamingoes) etc., were also kept at large in lawns and gardens in ancient India to heighten their beauty. Bird-fights were liked by the Hindu kings, while hawking was widely followed as a pastime. There is a Sanskrit work called Syainika Sastra by one of the Hindu princes, which gives a systematic study of the subject, recording and describing the habits and qualities of several species of falcons, and the means by which they were caught, tamed and trained. The ancient Hindus were keen observers of birds and bird-life. It is my impression that Sanskrit works on birds have mostly been overtaken by the same fate that has befallen works on other special subjects of secular importance. The physical features of many birds as also many of their habits that escape the eye of ordinary observers are delineated by the world-renowned Sanskrit poet Kalidasa in his works with a faithfulness which is really admirable. Shortness of space prevents me from dilating on the point, but detailed information on it can be had from a work of mine in Bengali called Pakhir Katha. Suffice it to say that the evidence at our disposal does not enable us to have a full idea about the activities of the ancient Hindu in regard to bird-keeping; but there can be no doubt that it was extensively practised, and birds were kept in cages and open gardens not only as a source of pleasure and as a luxury but also for diverse other purposes e.g., carriage of message, prevention of diseases by their presence (vide Kautiliya Arthasastra) etc.

The Muhammadan Emperors of India were very fond of cage-birds. Some of them were also fond of hawking and made elaborate arrangements for housing several kinds of hawks. The Emperor Akbar had several aviaries and bird-houses in which he kept a very large number of birds and pigeons. The first recorded attempt at cross-hybridisation in India is probably that of this monarch, who succeeded in raising the Fantail variety, appreciated so greatly by the Pigeon-fanciers of the present day. The sportive or fighting capacities of birds were greatly valued by the Muhammadans. The common Grey Partridges called Titar, Quails, Game Cocks and Bulbuls are noted for such capacities. A particular period of the year is still recognised as the time for holding such for the satisfaction of the people with a fancy for those spectacles.

Aviculture, as we understand it present, is a very recent phase of bird-keeping. The term was first coined and used by the founders of the Avicultural Society of London in the latter part of the 19th century. The object of the Society is to encourage birds to live and thrive in congenial conditions in captivity in order to study their habits and the biological or ornithological phenomena for adding to the stock of our knowledge of bird-life. Foreign birds are to be extensively imported and studied. Before the establishment of this Society, bird-keeping in Europe followed a standard which was not exactly the present scientific one, and was rightly designated 'fancy'. The training of birds to imitate artificially created trilling sounds resulted in the nicely quavering song of the German Roller Canaries. The fanciers were also bent on mule-breeding and development and fixa- tion of particular colour-marks in parts of the body. Aviculture, on the other hand, has for its province the scientific study of birds as mentioned already. Most ornithologists in the past were ignorant of the avicultural branch of their science,—a state of things which the Avicultural Society has helped a good deal to remove. How far it has been successful in the realisation of its objects may be gathered from the fact that in 1900, it could assert its claim so far as to have a special section for aviculture in the International Congress of Ornithology at Paris. The avicultural study of Indian birds was first systematically taken up by those English scientists who established a school of aviculturists in England. The most prominent names among them are those of Butler, Reginald Phillips, Astley, Teschemaker, Meade-Waldo, Seth-Smith, and Humphrys.

No comprehensive literature on Indian cage-birds from the pen of modern ornithologists is available. Sporadic attempts at scientific caging and breeding of Indian birds are on record. Modern vernacular literature is utterly barren of books on ornithology generally, not to speak of a special branch of it regarding the cage-birds.

The ideal and the methods of enquiry of the European Aviculturists are almost unknown to the Indians who, however, appreciate the possibilities of many Indian birds for growing into valuable cage pets by virtue of their song, beauty and other attractive features. Europeans have not yet had ample opportunities for examining them thoroughly but the conclusion that would be reached by such an investigation in regard to the song-birds, would not, I think, be different from the opinion of Douglas Dewar that "song-birds are numerous in India...India possesses song-birds which can hold their own in any company. If the shama, the magpie-robin, the fan-tailed fly-catcher, the white-eye, the purple sunbird, the orange-headed ground thrush, and the bhimraj visited England in the summer, they would soon supplant in popular favour some of our British song-birds."

As a large number of Indian songsters is found in Bengal, the present volume is devoted to these song-birds, the subsequent volumes being reserved for the talking, fighting, and miscellaneous birds kept for show etc. I have not, however, confined myself wholly to the cage-habits of these birds, and this volume should not be regarded as a book exclusively on aviculture. Several Indian cage-birds are liked and caged by aviculturists in Europe, who thus become acquainted with their cage-life, but lack information about them in their wild state. I have attempted to deal in detail with this feature from direct field observation; at the same time, I have put in facts regarding cage-life supplementing my own experience by the results of observations made by European aviculturists in their bird-rooms. All the birds touched in the volume are or were, sometime or other, inmates of my aviaries; and I have said about them nothing which did not come within my personal observation, or was not verified as correct.

In including the birds in this volume, I have in view the limits of Bengal as they stand at present. When the first edition of Fauna (Birds) of British India appeared, Bengal was a much bigger province than it is now. It then included Bihar, Orissa and Chota Nagpur within its boundaries but those three divisions were sliced off into a separate province in 1912. A map of Bengal has been included in the volume, showing the present and past limits to enable the reader to understand the distribution of the birds treated of in the book. There is, however, a host of cage-favourites belonging to provinces other than Bengal. They do not as a rule come within my purview except in one or two cases in which the bird is not unfrequently seen in the fringe-areas of Bengal. The omission of the king of songsters, the Nightingale, in a volume on song-birds may need some explanation, specially when it is so often seen in Bengal as a caged pet. It is never found in a wild state here. In fact, there was, and perhaps still is, some doubt as to its being an Indian bird; but I find that Mr. Stuart Baker has included it in his Hand-list of Indian birds. Another caged pet, not treated of in this book, is the Calandra Lark (Melanocorypha maxima), known to Indians as the "Jal". It is largely imported from China and is never found in the plains of India. Though an allied species of this Lark—Melanocorypha bimaculata—is a winter visitor to the north-western parts of India, it is seldom caught for the cage, people preferring the Chinese bird. Among other birds not noticed here are a few songsters like the Fantail Fly-catcher (Rhipidura albifrontata) and the Purple Sun-bird (Arachnechthra asiatica) which, though found plentifully in Bengal, are unknown as pet birds. They are very delicate and are not likely to thrive on the regulation diet provided by Indian bird-keepers.

I have used freely in this volume the vernacular names of the birds with the object of familiarising the European readers with the local nomenclature. As regards the scientific names, I have followed Oates' authoritative volume—the Fauna of British India. The trinomial nomenclature which has been adopted in the second edition of the Avi-fauna (now in course of publication by Mr. Stuart Baker) has necessitated some very important changes in classification. As the published portion of the book reached me after I had sent my manuscripts to the press, I have no other alternative but to add an appendix containing the names. I have also appended some additional aviary notes on notes on several birds the habits of which were observed during the period the text was in the press.

Dr. Graham Renshaw, m.d., f.r.s.e., editor of the Natureland, has laid me under a deep obligation by contributing a foreword to this volume. I owe a deep debt of gratitude to Professor Bipin Behari Gupta, m.a., for his valuable suggestions, and to my cousin Dr. Narendra Nath Law, m.a., b.l., p.r.s., p.h.d., whose words have always served as a stimulus to my energy, and whose efforts have always been directed to the prefection of the results of my labours. Dr. Law has put me under a fresh obligation by including this volume in his Calcutta Oriental Series. My thanks are due to Mr. Sudhindra Lal Roy, m.a., for material assistance and to Mr. N. Kushari for the artistic drawing of the illustrations. I must also acknowledge the help I have received from Messrs. Nalin Chandra Paul and Raghu Nath Sil while putting the manuscripts through the press.

24, Sukeas Street, | | S. C. Law.

| Calcutta,

| December, 1923.

The Shama

PET BIRDS OF BENGAL

(SONG BIRDS)

SHAMA

PET BIRDS OF BENGAL

3⦂0⦂3

THE SHAMA

(CITTOCINCLA MACRURA)

The Shama, as a songster, is entitled to the first place in the whole feathered community of India, and for the matter of that, in Bengal. For a competitor to whom it yields in song, we have to look to regions which are, strictly speaking, outside India, to that unassuming bird which, despite its homely beauty, has been rendered immortal by its vocal charms—the Nightingale. Though the Shama is overstepped by this prince of songsters by a long distance, yet the sweetness of its song is highly remarkable for its variety, depth, impetuousness, and modulation, which have made it the darling of both the high and the low throughout the length and breadth of India. This bird was familiar to our ancestors in the long past. The name Shama signifies 'glossy dark'—a predominant colour of the bird. The name has another fascination for the Hindus, whose love and reverence for the goddess of that name are so well-known. The bird has yet another charm. It is very docile in captivity, though so bold and fearless in demeanour. This, added to its beauty and its wonderful capacity for imitating human voices and calls of other birds and animals, has greatly enhanced its value as a caged pet. The attention which it can thus command from its master is no less remarkable. It is commonly kept in a lovely cage of superior workmanship, always wrapped up with a piece of clean linen, and taken out every evening for an airing. Those who can afford, engage servants specially for this purpose, and it is not an unusual sight in many an Indian city to see several such cages taken out to a municipal park or open ground for the airing. A covered cage is always looked upon by the Indians as essential to keeping a bird in health and song. The belief has taken such a firm hold on the mind of the masses that no amount of reasoning can dissuade them from this practice which is obviously contrary to all hygienic rules; for, in fact, birds in open cages, enjoying air and light, do not sing the less or fare the worse in health. In spite of this drawback in caging, the caged Shama can be pronounced to be an avicultural success, for the bird grows robust and lives long in confinement, and, except for the short moulting period, it sings throughout the year. And, since the bird is often caged when young, it gets accustomed to human intrusion, and acquires a non-chalant air about it, singing away its days quite oblivious of the presence of man.

The Shama, in freedom, is not a familiar sight to us. It is a denizen of thick jungles and dense forests, keeping generally to the underwood. It loves to frequent thickets in glades and valleys located in the midst of hills or mountains. It is, therefore, absent in the districts devoid of these natural features. In Bengal, which is one of the most thickly populated provinces, this bird confines itself to those jungly districts where human habitation is scarce. For this reason, it rarely makes the Deltaic portion of Bengal its place of abode, but is often a dweller of the western skirts of the districts of Midnapore and Birbhum. Eastwards from the Padma in the verdant hills of Cachar, Assam, and Tipperah, it is very numerous. In other parts of India, its most important ranges are the Terai districts of the Sub-Himalayan regions from Nepal to Dibrugarh in Assam. It is also represented in the well-wooded hills and forests of Central India, Orissa, Chotanagpur, and the Rajmahal Hills. In Southern India, it is a permanent resident of the hill-ranges of the West as far north as Khandalla in the Sahyadri. Its range extends beyond the Palk Straits into Ceylon, where it is very abundant. In the eastern parts of the Deccan, it is seen in Malabar. It is absolutely a stranger in the provinces west of the Ganges, and in Rajputana. It is widely and abundantly found all over Burma.

It is invariably a resident bird in the localities to which its range is confined, but in the hill-tracts of Cachar, it has been observed to be a winter visitant. It seldom ascends the hills to any great height, nor is it ever seen in cultivated tracts, however well-wooded. The hills and forests, the jungles around streams, and woods in valleys and dales which the bird frequents are hardly considered by it as its safest retreats; and so, by way of further precaution, this wary bird betakes itself to the most impervious thickets, underwood, and clumpy bushes, where it is able to escape the most searching observations. Almost everywhere within its range, the bird shows a preference for particular spots, over which it holds sway and even seems to stick to these favoured haunts in spite of devastations by occasional fires, which break out in the forests.

The Shama thus chooses for its habitation places where Nature is luxuriant and arrayed in its varied glories. In the mornings and evenings, from the midst of a hush or a bamboo-scrub—for which it seems to have a partiality—it mingles its impetuous melody with the music of rustling leaves and murmuring rills. And, while rapt in its own song, the least sound will send it scurrying through the air—so shy and easily alarmed it is! But its flight is never long; and re-alighting at a short distance, it vanishes into leafy cover, whence it renews its song with as much vigour. When the usual notes are thus suddenly interrupted, the bird gives out a sort of monosyllabic sound, which Legge says resembles churr churr. But to me it hears more like t'chat t'chat. This peculiar sound is accompanied by a jerking up of the tail.

It never soars high into the air, nor is it ever seen perched on the topmost branches of trees; but it makes it a point to keep as near the ground as possible, generally selecting low branches for perching. From such a position, it is always on the look-out for any insect which may stray into view. As soon as it notices its prey, it comes down to pick it up; and if, in the act of swallowing the worm, it happens to spot another, it hops up to bag this one also. It is chiefly insectivorous, its menu consisting of grasshoppers, small beetles, ants, flies and their congeners.

Solitary in its habits, it aggressively drives away any member of its own community, and on the approach of one, it will at once attack the latter, fighting fiercely till one gives ground. The unsociability of this bird falsifies the proverb that birds of a feather flock together. This peevish temper makes it shun even the proximity of its unobtrusive mate, who wisely keeps aloof, and from a distance, takes silent pride in the vocal attainments of her enchanter. If, by inadvertence, she comes too near her lord, he forgets all codes of chivalry and does not even hesitate to give her a sound chastisement.

The only season, when the Shama does not dislike the company of its mate, is when instinct obtains mastery over its temper in the mating period. It mates during April and June, and the female rears up the brood. Hollows in trees or stumps from two to twenty feet from the ground are selected by it for nesting, and sometimes she takes advantage of holes made by other birds. She stuffs up the hollow with dry leaves about three inches thick, and makes upon this bed of leaves a loose nest of twigs and grass. The eggs laid by her are usually four in number, rather small in size, and ovate in shape. The ground colour is dull greenish,

very often a pale sea-green. The whole is densely freckled with rich brown, thickly mingled with dull purplish.

If there is any bird which repays the care bestowed on it, it is the Shama. Its rich coloration, bold and vivacious movements, powerful and melodious voice and unlimited power of mimicry—all combine to make it the most desirable subject for the cage or the aviary. Though in India this bird has received the attention of bird-lovers from time immemorial, no one seems to have studied it from an avicultural view-point. We know little of its wild life; and we, in India, knew as little about its life in the cage till Europeans took up the study.

The Shama is one of those birds which in a free state shun all intimacy with man. But once caged, it seems to forget all antipathy towards him and becomes the most lovable pet. It never pines for its loss of liberty; and its easy and cheerful life indicates that it fully appreciates the love and care of its protector. If hearty cheerfulness conduces to long life, it is no wonder that the Shama stands a life of bondage so well and so long.

When accommodating the Shama, it should be remembered that it is very restless. It is always frisking about with its tail working up and down. It should have sufficient space inside the cage; otherwise its continual tail-play will injure that beautiful appendage of its graceful person. While introducing it into the aviary, it should be kept in mind that this bird, however tame it may be, has a wonderful combative temperament. The presence of another Shama serves as a red rag to a bull. It never condescends to accept others of its kind as chums, and seems to think that the latter are there to be its uncomplaining fags. When in a warlike mood, its healthy optimism would even lead it to give battle to its keeper, if the latter were to enter the aviary without the conciliatory dish of mealworms. It carries its aloofness to such an extent that it would at first refuse to chum up with a female Shama if introduced into its dwelling. The male does not seem to be at all anxious for a feminine companion. You can never thrust a female Shama near a male without a lengthy introduction. The female, knowing well the tyrannical temper of the male, will at first shrink in fear. Both should at first be kept in different cages inside the same aviary. Occasionally, they may be let loose. At first there is sure to be trouble, but the male will begin to tolerate the female gradually, and may even mate in the long run.

Indian experience has seldom recorded any instance of the Shama breeding in captivity. A couple of years back I noticed a pair trying to build a nest in the hollow of a stump inside an aviary of the Calcutta Zoological Gardens, but nothing came of it. A pair of Shamas, in the aviary of Mr. G. C. Mandal of Calcutta, built a nest and hatched their young which, however, did not survive long. But we find mention of several instan- ces of the Shama having bred in captivity in England. In this direction, the observations of Mr. Reginald Phillips are of great value. The female Shama seems to take the initiative in building a nest. The male never responds to the female's silent appeal until the former is thoroughly satisfied as to the latter's earnestness. In selecting materials for the nest, the female shows much discrimination. In one instance, it carried dead leaves of Ivy and Euonymus while it studiedly rejected those of Rhododendrons. It chose straw and the finest hay for the inner lining of the nest but never looked at moss and hair. The period of incubation seems to last for about eleven or twelve days. It is only when the nestlings come out that the keeper will feel the greatest difficulty as to food. While in ordinary times the Shama would take to all sorts of artificial food, it refuses to eat anything but insects at this time. The keeper will thus be hard put to in maintaining a sufficient supply of live grubs both for the chicks and the parents. A regular supply of mealworms and cock-roaches should be kept up at this time. The mealworms need not be cut up into pieces. The capacious throat of the young bird can receive whole cock-roaches without the least danger of suffocation. In India we hand-rear captive nestlings with satoo made into soft paste with water, and a few grasshoppers. It is interesting to note how the parent-birds try to keep the fact of its nest a secret. In your presence it will never go straight to its nest but will make a show of stopping at different places before finally entering it. The Shama is very careful about sanitation, and the male may often be seen carrying the excreta, and dropping them at places far from the nest. When the young are considered able to fly, the mother-bird gives them a preliminary course of training by supporting them from beneath, after shoving them off a perch. As soon as the aviary-bred nestlings attain their adult plumage, the question naturally arises as to the propriety of in-breeding and even trying any experiment of cross-breeding a Shama with an English bird like the Robin.