The diyul also sings
sweetly; he is about the same size as the shamah, his plumage black,
with a white breast, and white tips to his wings. A well-trained bird
of either kind sells for about ten rupees, and twenty will be given
for a cuckoo from the Nepaul hills. A Baboo whom I knew had several
servants to look after his aviary, one of whom had to go daily in
search of white ants and ants' eggs for his insectivorous charge; for
the shamah and diyul are both insect-eaters.
Some of the _Minas_ (Gracula), of which there are several kinds in
India, articulate as distinctly, and are as imitative, as the parrots.
One of these birds was once brought as a present to my little girl.
The donor took his leave, assuring us that the bird was a great
speaker, and imitated a variety of sounds. This I found to be too
true, for I was awakened by him next morning at dawn of day. He had
evidently been bred in the neighbourhood of the hospital, and also
initiated into the mysteries of the parade. He coughed like a
consumptive patient, groaned like one in agony, and moaned as if in
the last extremity. Then he would call a 'halt!' and imitate the
jingling of the ramrods in the muskets so exactly, that I marvelled
how his little throat could go through so many modulations.
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