Page:The Common Birds of Bombay.djvu/118

102 looking bird about which one naturally wants to know. It is in fact a globe-trotter, coming to India for the cold season from its home in Cashmere or Turkestan; and it has the ague in its tail. By the peculiar shivering of that organ you may recognise it. It is a little larger than an English Robin, and of a dark-brown, or almost black, colour, which passes into a rusty-red on the lower back and the whole hinder part of the body and the tail.

There is another little fairy creature which few notice, except those who are curious about birds, but I must mention it, because it was in Bombay that I first made its acquaintance. I mean the Blue-throat (Cyanecula suecica). Near the house in which I lived there was a field of Lucerne grass, irrigated from a well with a Persian wheel, and here I used to notice the happy little bird enjoying the pleasures of solitude in the rivulets that ran in the cool shade of soft green leaves. It is quite a Robin in its figure and gait, but quiet and retiring in its disposition, and simple but neat in its suit of olive-brown. But its throat and breast are bright azure blue, and by this you may know it. This is full dress, however. Immature birds and females show scarcely a trace of it and are not so easily recognised. This bird comes to us for the cold season only, and is not uncommon across the harbour wherever there are cool shades and running waters.