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This useful bird usually sails in graceful circles high overhead, looking for food. Its cry is not heard so frequently on those hills as in the Himalayas, the reason being the different configuration of the two ranges. The Nilgiris are undulating and downlike, hence the kites are able, while hovering higher than the summits of the hills, to see what is happening in the valleys.
The sound which it seems to produce more often than any other is very like the harsh anger-cry of the common myna. Many Himalayan birds have rather discordant notes, and in this respect these mountains do not compare favourably with the Nilgiris, where the blithe notes of the bulbuls are very pleasing to the ear. Jays are by nature bold birds.
It sleeps with the head hanging down after the manner of bats, hence Finn calls this pretty little bird the bat-parrot. Owls, like woodpeckers, do not patronise the Nilgiris very largely. This is the bird which perches on the roof of the house at night and calls to-whoo. Only four species of vulture occur on the hills of South India.
Two species of jungle-fowl have partitioned the Indian peninsula between them. Davison is my authority for stating that the Strobilanthes whitiani, which constitutes the main undergrowth of many of the forests of the Nilgiris, seeds only once in about seven years, and that when this plant is seeding the grey jungle-fowl assemble in vast numbers to feed on the seed.
Many of the Indian warblers are only winter visitors to India. Eliminating these, only two warblers are entitled to a place among the common birds of the Nilgiris. These are the tailor-bird and the ashy wren-warbler. Oates, be it noted, states that this species does not ascend the hills higher than 4000 feet.
The edible-nest swiftlet (Collocalia fuciphaga) is the commonest swift on the Nilgiris. It is only about half the size of the species mentioned above, being less than 5 inches in length. In my opinion, this bird is misnamed the edible-nest swiftlet, because a considerable quantity of grass and feathers is worked into the nest, and I, for my part, find neither grass nor feathers edible. But chacun
It does not occur on the Nilgiris, but a near relative is to be numbered among the commonest birds of those hills, being found in every wood and in almost every garden.
Amadavats occur all over the Nilgiris. Finches are seed-eating birds characterised by a stout bill, which is used for husking grain. Most of us see too much of him. He is to be observed in every garden on the Nilgiris, looking as though the particular garden in which he happens to be belongs to him.
It is remarkable that these dogs are not found in the closely neighbouring island of Van Diemen's Land. The wild dogs of India go under the name of Buansa, Dhole, and Kolsun, are found in Nepal, the Nilgiris, Coromandel, the Dekkan, etc., and bear various names, according to their locality.
With this by way of introduction, I will proceed to describe the birds in question, dealing with them according to the classification adopted in the standard book on Indian ornithology the bird volumes of the "Fauna of British India" series. This family is not nearly so well represented on the Nilgiris as it is in the Himalayas.
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