. Bombay ducks; an account of some of the every-day birds and beasts found in a naturalist's Eldorado . conditions the coppersmiths never survive is not that they are killed by the other inmatesof the cage or that they cannot endure reason of their speedy death is that the grainwhich is meat to so many birds is death to the copper-smith. If the latter be fed purely on fruit, he willoften survive long in captivity. But the captive birdis not happy; no matter how warm the weather be, henever goes to work at his forge. But this is a digression. To return to the appear-ance
. Bombay ducks; an account of some of the every-day birds and beasts found in a naturalist's Eldorado . conditions the coppersmiths never survive is not that they are killed by the other inmatesof the cage or that they cannot endure reason of their speedy death is that the grainwhich is meat to so many birds is death to the copper-smith. If the latter be fed purely on fruit, he willoften survive long in captivity. But the captive birdis not happy; no matter how warm the weather be, henever goes to work at his forge. But this is a digression. To return to the appear-ance of the bird. It always puts me in mind of awoman who makes up very carelessly, who is notonly exceedingly lavish of the paint, but does notunderstand how to shade it off gradually. The generalcolour of the birds plumage is greenish, but on closeinspection many greyish-white feathers are seen to bemingled with the green ones. There is a daub ofcrimson on the forehead and another on the sides of the face are pale yellow. The legs arecoral-red. The build of the bird is exceedingly COlPERSNriTH ALEXANDER THE COPPERSMITH 247 The sparrow, when seen side by side with the copper-smith, looks almost a gentleman ! The coppersmith isthe coarsest bird of my acquaintance, with the excep-tion of the vulture. The coarseness of this latter, how-ever, is of a different type; it is that of the despisedoutcast, while that of the coppersmith is the coarsenessof a Whitechapel prize-fighter. The coppersmith belongs to the barbet family. Thisis represented in India by seventeen species. Thewhole clan resemble one another very closely in live almost entirely on fruit. All have a loud,monotonous note. All are essentially tree-huntingbirds. I do not remember ever having seen a barbetsitting on the ground. All nest in holes in trees. The flight of every member of the family is un-dulating. The barbets are thus what men of sciencecall a well-marked natural family. When you
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectbirdsin, bookyear1906
