ly to become active and to
manifest itself in the form of song or dance.

In October the pied chat and the wood-shrike frequently make sweet
melody. Throughout the month the cock sunbirds sing as lustily and
almost as brilliantly as canaries; many of them are beginning to
reassume the iridescent purple plumage which they doffed some time
ago. From every mango tope emanates the cheerful lay of the fantail
flycatcher and the lively "Think of me ... Never to be" of the
grey-headed flycatcher. Amadavats sing sweet little songs without
words as they flit about among the tall grasses.

In the early morning and at eventide, the crow-pheasants give vent to
their owl-like hoot, preceded by a curious guttural _kok-kok-kok_. The
young ones, that left the nest some weeks ago, are rapidly losing
their barred plumage and are assuming the appearance of the adult. By
the middle of November very few immature crow-pheasants are seen.

Migration and moulting are the chief events in the feathered world at
the present season. The flood of autumn immigration, which arose as a
tiny stream in August, and increased in volume nightly throughout
September, becomes, in October, a mighty river on the bosom of which
millions of birds are borne.

Day by day the avian population of the _jhils_ increases. At the
beginning of the month the garganey teal are almost the only migratory
ducks to be seen on them. By the first of November brahminy duck,
gadwall, common teal, widgeon, shovellers and the various species of
pochard abound. With the duck come demoiselle cranes, curlews, storks,
and sandpipers of various species. The geese and the pintail ducks,
however, do not return to India until November. These are the last of
the regular winter visitors to come and the first to go.

The various kinds of birds of prey which began to appear in September
continue to arrive throughout the present month.

Grey-headed and red-breasted flycatchers, minivets, bush-chats,
rose-finches and swallows pour into the plains from the Himalayas,
while from beyond those mountains come redstarts, wagtails, starlings,
buntings, blue-throats, quail and snipe. Along with the other migrants
come numbers of rooks and jackdaws. These do not venture far into
India; they confine themselves to the North-West Frontier Province and
the Punjab, where they remain during the greater part of the winter.
The exodus, from the above-mentioned Provinces, of the bee-eaters,
sunbirds, yellow