y about from blossom to blossom. The natives
call it the 'Muddpenah' or drinker of honey. There are innumerable
butterflies of graceful shape and gorgeous colours; what few birds
there are have beautiful plumage; there is a faint rustle of leaves, a
faint, far hum of insect life; but it feels so silent, so unlike the
woods at home. You are oppressed by the solemn stillness, and feel
almost nervous as you push warily along, for at any moment a leopard,
wolf, or hyena may get up before you, or you may disturb the siesta of
a sounder of pig, or a herd of deer.

Up in those forests on the borders of Nepaul, which are called the
_morung_, there are a great many varieties of parrot, all of them
very beautiful. There is first the common green parrot, with a red
beak, and a circle of salmon-coloured feathers round its neck; they
are very noisy and destructive, and flock together to the fields
where they do great damage to the crops. The _lutkun sooga_ is an
exquisitely-coloured bird, about the size of a sparrow. The _ghur[=a]l_,
a large red and green parrot, with a crimson beak. The _tota_ a
yellowish-green colour, and the male with a breast as red as blood;
they call it the _amereet bhela_. Another lovely little parrot, the
_taeteea sooga_, has a green body, red head, and black throat; but the
most showy and brilliant of all the tribe is the _putsoogee_. The body
is a rich living green, red wings, yellow beak, and black throat; there
is a tuft of vivid red as a topknot, and the tail is a brilliant blue;
the under feathers of the tail being a pure snowy white.

At times the silence is broken by a loud, metallic, bell-like cry,
very like the yodel you hear in the Alps. You hear it rise sharp and
distinct, 'Looralei!' and as suddenly cease. This is the cry of the
_kookoor gh[=e]t_, a bird not unlike a small pheasant, with a
reddish-brown back and a fawn-coloured breast. The _sherra_ is another
green parrot, a little larger than the _putsoogee_, but not so
beautifully coloured.

There is generally a green, slime-covered, sluggish stream in all these
forests, its channel choked with rotting leaves and decaying vegetable
matter. The water should never be drunk until it has been boiled and
filtered. At intervals the stream opens out and forms a clear
rush-fringed pool, and the trees receding on either bank leave a lovely
grassy glade, where the deer and nilghau come to drink. On the glassy
bosom of the pool in the centre, fine duc