ocompsa_ bulbuls forms the dominant note of the bird chorus in
our southern hill stations, so does the less melodious but not less
cheerful call of the flycatcher-warblers run as an undercurrent
through the melody of the feathered choir of the Himalayas.

In what follows I shall speak of Hodgson's grey-headed
flycatcher-warbler as our hero, because I shrink from constant
repetition of his double double-barrelled name. I should prefer to
give him Jerdon's name, the white-browed warbler, but for the fact
that there are a score or more other warblers with white eyebrows.
Our hero is considerably smaller than a sparrow, being only a fraction
over four inches in length, and of this over one-third is composed
of tail. The head and neck are grey, the former being set off by a
cream-coloured eyebrow. Along the middle of the head runs a band of
pale grey; this "mesial coronal band," as Oates calls it, is far more
distinct in some specimens than in others. The remainder of the upper
plumage is olive green, and the lower parts are bright yellow.
Coloured plate, No. XX, in Hume and Henderson's _Lahore to Yarkand_,
contains a very good reproduction of the bird. The upper picture on
the plate represents our hero, the lower one depicting an allied
species, Brook's grey-headed flycatcher-warbler (_C. Jerdoni_). It
is necessary to state this because the book in question was written
in 1873, since when, needless to say, the scientific names of most
birds have undergone changes. The plate in question also demonstrates
the slenderness of the foundation upon which specific differences
among warblers rest.

Our hero is an exceedingly active little bird. He is ever on the move,
and so rapid are his movements that to watch him for any length of
time through field-glasses is no mean feat. He and his mate, with
perhaps a few friends, hop about from leaf to leaf looking for quarry,
large and small. The manner in which he stows away a caterpillar an
inch long is a sight for the gods!

Sometimes two or three of these warblers attach themselves,
temporarily at any rate, to one of those flocks, composed mainly of
various species of tits and nuthatches, which form so well-marked
a feature of all wooded hills in India. Hodgson's warblers are
pugnacious little creatures. Squabbles are frequent. It is
impossible to watch two or three of them for long without seeing what
looks like one tiny animated golden fluff ball pursuing another from
branch to br