Page:The Common Birds of Bombay.djvu/132

116 arrangement which Jerdon adopted they were widely separated on account of their stouter bills and more vegetarian habits. Of the soft-billed, insect-eating, birds, there is only one family left, that of the Tits, and in that family there is only one bird which Bombay can claim. That is the White-eyed Tit (Zosterops palpebrosus), a bright little creature scarcely larger than an Amadavat, of a clear green colour passing into canary-yellow on the breast. It gets its name from a narrow ring of white round each eye, which gives a peculiar expression to its face. In the cold season flocks of these birds wander about the trees, uttering a soft cheeping note, and, though I cannot say I have actually seen them in Bombay, they are so often seen just across the harbour that they cannot possibly pass us by. In the rains the flocks break up into pairs and make their neat little nests and lay their pretty blue eggs, but not on the coast. I suppose the rainfall is too heavy here.

The Indian Gray Tit, that dapper little bird, with black head and white cheeks, which makes itself so familiar in our gardens in Poona, does not appear to come below the Ghauts. The pretty Yellow Tit, easily recognised by its foppish little black-and-yellow crest, is not very rare on the coast, but I have not seen it in Bombay.