Indian Antiquary Vol 14

SR No.: 032506
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: John Faithfull Fleet, Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 418
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 18 MB

Page 343

NOVEMBER, 1885.]
ANIMALS AND PLANTS OF INDIA.
305
21. THE KERKION (Kepkiw).
23. COCKS OF LARGEST SIZE Eulabes religiosa, Linn.; or E. intermedia,
('AXEKTpvoves péyotot). Hay.--The Hill Mainá.
Lophophorus impeyanus, Lath.-Munál. By Alian" we are told there is another The mundl pheasant must, I think, have sat remarkable bird in India : it is the size of a forthe following descriptive portrait by Ælian: starling, is parti-coloured, and is trained to "There are also cocks which are of extrautter the sounds of human speech. It is even ordinary size, and have their crests, not red, as more talkative than the parrot, and of greater elsewhere, or, at least, in our country, but have natural cleverness. So far is it from submit- the flower-like coronals, of which the crest ting with pleasure to be fed by man, that it is formed, variously coloured. Their ramp has rather such a pining for freedom, and such feathers again are neither curved nor wreathed, a longing to warble at will in the society of its but are of great breadth, and they trail them mates, that it prefers starvation to slavery in the way peacocks trail their tails, when with sumptuous fare. It is called by the they neither strengthen nor erect them; the Makedonians, who settled among the Indians feathers of these Indian cocks are in colour in the city of Boukephala and its neighbour- golden, and also dark blue, like the smahood, and in the city called Kyropolis, and ragdus." others, which Alexander the son of Philip built, It is probable that mundl pheasants, captured the kerkion. This name had, I believe, its in the Himalayas, were brought into India origin in the fact that the bird wags its tail in for sale, and thus became known to the Greeks. the same way as the water-ousels (ol klyko)." The same bird is, I believe, referred to under
Jerdon states that the Hindustanî name of E. the name katreus by Strabo, where he quotes religiosa in Southern India is kok in mainá, from Kleitarkhos, and tells us that the bird which may be compared with kerkion. If this was beautiful in appearance, had variegated handsome and most accomplished musician and | plumage, and approached the peacock in shape. talker be not the bird referred to by Ælian, | A suggestion that this was a bird of paradise then I can only suggest some of the other less is therefore absurd, and is otherwise most remarkable species of mainás (Acridotheres). improbable, since birds of paradise are found
Babar in his Memoirs describes several not in India but in New Guinea. With this species of shárak, one of which with ear- also I am inclined to identify "the partridge lappets must have been a species of Eulabes. larger than a vulture," which, as related by 22, GREEN-WINGED Dove (federás xwpóstidos)
Strabo," on the authority of Nicolaus Demus. Crocopus chlorigaster, Blyth.-Green Pigeon.
cenus, was sent by Porus, with other presents
in charge of an embassy, to Augustus Cæsar. The green pigeons of India, which fly in flocks, and feed upon fruit, are often a puzzle
24. THE Kelas (Kýlas). to strangers now, as they appear to have been Leptoptilos argala, Linn.-The Adjutant. to Megasthenes, or whatever other author it In the following passage from linn, we was from whom Ælian derived his information. may, I think, recognise the adjutant:-I He says: “One who is not well versed in learn further, that in India there is a bird bird-lore, seeing these for the first time, would which is thrice the size of the bustard, and has a take them to be parrots and not pigeons. In bill of prodigious size, and long legs. It is furthe colour of the bill and legs they resemble nished also with an immense crop, resembling Greek partridges."
a leather pouch. The cry which it atters is There are several species of green pigeons in peculiarly discordant. The plumage is ashIndia; but the one mentioned above is the coloured, except that the feathers, at their tips, commonest, and has the widest distribution. are tinted with a pale yellow.':59
" Hist. Anim., xvi. 1. Cf. J. W. M'Crindle's Megas. thenes, p. 159.
" [Cf. ante, Vol. XI. pp, 291-3, where kepkio is derived from the Skr. fariki and the bird supposed to be the modern sharak or acridotheres tristis.-ED.]
** Hist. Anim., Ivi. 1.
6. Hist. Anim., Ivi. 2. Cf. J. W. M'Crindle's Megaythenes, p. 160 ; and Ancient India, p. 86.
* Gesgraphika, xv. c. 1, $ 60. " Geigraphika, xv. c. 1, $ 73. # Pist. Anim., xvi. 4.