Most of the monsoon broods of the Indian cliff-swallow emerge from the
eggs in August. The "rains" breeding season of the amadavats or red
munias is now over, and the bird-catcher issues forth to snare them.
His stock-in-trade consists of some seed and two or three amadavats in
one of the pyramid-shaped wicker cages that can be purchased for a few
annas in any bazaar. To the base of one of the sides of the cage a
flap is attached by a hinge. The flap, which is of the same shape and
size as the side of the cage, is composed of a frame over which a
small-meshed string net is stretched. A long string is fastened to the
apex of the flap and passed through a loop at the top of the cage.
Selecting an open space near some tall grass in which amadavats are
feeding, the bird-catcher sets down the cage and loosens the string so
that the flap rests on the earth. Some seed is sprinkled on the flap.
Then the trapper squats behind a bush, holding the end of the string
in his hand. The cheerful little _lals_ inside the cage soon begin to
twitter and sing, and their calls attract the wild amadavats in the
vicinity. These come to the cage, alight on the flap, and begin to eat
the seed. The bird-catcher gives the string a sharp pull and thus
traps his victims between the flap and the side of the cage. He then
disentangles them, places them in the cage, and again sets the trap.
Almost all the birds that rear up their young in the spring have
finished nesting duties for the year by August. Here and there a pair
of belated rollers may be seen feeding their young. Before the
beginning of the month nearly all the young crows and koels have
emerged from the egg, and the great majority of them have left the
nest. Young house-crows are distinguished from adults by the
indistinctness of the grey on the neck. They continually open their
great red mouths to clamour for food.
The wire-tailed swallows, swifts, pied crested-cuckoos,
crow-pheasants, butcher-birds, cuckoo-shrikes, fantail flycatchers,
babblers, white-necked storks, wren-warblers, weaver-birds, common and
pied mynas, peafowl, and almost all the resident water-birds, waders
and swimmers, except the terns and the plovers, are likely to have
eggs or young. The nesting season of the swifts and butcher-birds is
nearly over. In the case of the others it is at its height. The
wire-tailed swallows and minivets are busy with their second broods.
The nests of most of these birds have already been described.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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