pure white, and there is a white line running
along each side of the head from front to back. The yellow beak is
long and curved, hence the adjectival "scimitar." It is impossible
to mistake the bird. The difficulty is to obtain anything more than
a fleeting glimpse of it. It is so shy that it takes cover the instant
it knows that it is being watched. It hops about in thick bushes with
considerable address, much as a crow-pheasant does. It feeds on
insects, which it picks off the ground or from leaves and trunks of
trees. It uses the long bill as a probe, by means of which it secures
insects lurking in the crevices of bark.

The Nilgiri laughing-thrush (_Trochalopterum cachinnans_) is a very
common bird on the hills. Like the two species of babbler already
described, it is a shy creature, living amid thick shrubs, from which
it seldom ventures far. The head is slightly crested, the upper
plumage, including the wings and tail, is olive brown. The head is
set off by a white eyebrow. The under parts are chestnut. The beak
and legs are black. Laughing-thrushes congregate in small flocks.
They subsist chiefly on fruit. Their cry is loud and characteristic;
it may be described as a bird's imitation of human laughter. Their
cheerful calls are among the sounds heard most often at Ootacamund
and Coonoor.

The Indian white-eye (_Zosterops palpebrosa_) is a bird that has
puzzled systematists. Jerdon classed it among the tits, and its habits
certainly justify the measure; but later ornithologists have not
accepted the dictum "Manners makyth bird," and have placed the
white-eye among the babblers.

The white-eye is a plump little bird, considerably smaller than a
sparrow. The head and back are yellowish green, becoming almost golden
in the sunlight. The wings and tail are brown. The chin, breast, and
feathers under the tail are bright yellow, the abdomen is white. Round
the eye is a ring of white feathers, interrupted in front by a black
patch.

From this ring--its most striking feature--the bird has derived its
name. The ring is very regular, and causes the bird to look as though
it had been decorating its eye with Aspinall's best enamel.

White-eyes invariably go about in flocks; each member of the company
utters unceasingly a cheeping note in order to keep his fellows
apprized of his movements. These birds feed largely on insects, which
they pick off leaves in truly tit-like manner, sometimes even hanging
head downwards in