Page:The Common Birds of Bombay.djvu/126

110 under spray and leaf, ceaselessly and silently. For they hardly make a sound, except a low tik at intervals. They hold no intercourse with each other: even family ties seem to be sundered for the season. I have said that there are many species, but the differences between them seldom amount to more than this, that one is greenish-brown and another is brownish-green, and another is a little yellowish on the under-parts, or has a pale eyebrow, or a faint band on the wing, or is half-an-inch longer or half-an-inch shorter. Some few are marked more distinctly, but they belong to a side-branch of the family. Among these is the English Whitethroat, which spends the winter with us, and the Blackcap, a much larger bird with a black cap. I believe that both these may occasionally be seen in Bombay.

Among the long reeds that grow near water about the Flats there is a plain brown bird, larger than a sparrow, which has an invincible objection to being seen. And it would succeed without difficulty if it could keep quiet; but it feels impelled to say chuck every few seconds, in a loud, emphatic tone of voice. Then, when you look for it, it gets a dense bush, or clump of reeds, between itself and you, and as you move round the one side it moves round the other and says chuck. It is a most exasperating bird. I have spent hours trying to get a sight of it, with little enough success, but I believe it is the Large Reed Warbler (Acrocephalus stentorius), which also belongs to a different branch of the great family of Warblers. There is a lesser edition of the same, Acrocephalus dumetorum, which may be met with in Bombay also during the cold season.