348 Birds in Sanskrit Literature like the White-cheeked and the Common Terns¹ are coastal birds. All these have black heads and crests, grey upper parts and white or white suffused with vinous-grey lower parts. All have deeply forked tails. The bill, legs and feet are yellow or red. The Black-bellied Tern frequents also small ditches and village ponds for food. The River Ternlet (10") is practically a smaller edition of its larger cousin, the River Tern, which it resembles in breeding and other habits. as already noted in Ternlet, कुरिका as we Tern, a permanent resident The common Sanskrit name for a Tern is the preceding article, and for a small Tern shall see presently. The Indian River and the most numerous with us is known as g in Hindi as well. get for a female Osprey or Fishing Eagle (Art. 50) is merely a grammatical feminine of and the term is never used in literature in this sense because the names of all birds of prey like , , , , etc. are always used in the masculine irrespective of sex except in mythology where at, eft, and it are said to be the 'original mothers' of certain groups of birds in the Epics and Puranas and gut is occasionally used for the Common Kite e.g. in aut, 4.3 (see Art. 52). Moreover the Osprey breeds very rarely in India and its callnotes are seldom heard in the country as pointed out by Salim Ali in his Book of Indian Birds. The of literatures is therefore either the Tern or the Curlew according to context. It must also be noted that the cries of birds of prey have. always been regarded as inauspicious and are never used as a simile for the plaintive wail of women of noble birth like efter, or dramatic heroines like मालती of 'मालतीमाधव'. To render कुररी, in such contexts as the female Osprey or the Lapwing ((fecfen) is wholly indefensible. The Curlew breeds outside India and is only a winter visitor with us. The F of a, crying plaintively at the loss of her young, is there- fore the River or Black-bellied Tern, both breeding on the North-Indian rivers : विषादपरिप्लवलोचना ततः प्रनष्टपोता कुररीव दुःखिता। विहाय धैर्य विरुराव गौतमी तताम चैवाश्रुमुखी जगाद च ॥ बुद्धचरित 8.51. 1. Writing about the Common Tern, which is a winter visitors to India along the Mekran coast and is closely allied to our River Tern, E. H. Forbush says that these birds are useful to the fisherman as they serve to mark the schools of edible fish. These fish drive the small fry to the surface, the telescopic eyes of the Terns mark the disturbance from afar and when the fishermen see the gahering, plunging flocks, they put off in their boats, well knowing that their work lies there. (Birds of America.) 2. Suresh Sinha in gurê fefgut (Allahabad, 1941). 3. See Art. 68 for the different meanings of 4. रामायण, 3.14.19; म.भा. 1.66.58; मत्स्यपुराण, 6.31-32; हरिवंश, 1.3.107; ब्रह्मपु. 3.93-94; and other Puranas. 5. See Art. 72 for the curlew. 349 Terns rarely settle on the water, and "it is a pretty sight to watch a flock of Terns following a shoal of little fishes with clamorous glee, dropping one after another with a splash and rising again and chasing one another ceaselessly" (EHA). Such a scene is recalled in the following: Terns प्रसन्नसलिलाः सौम्य कुररीभिविनादिताः । चक्रवाकगणाकीणी विभान्ति सलिलाशयाः ॥ - रामायण, 4.30,59. क्रीडाकृतार्थंकुररकामिनीव्याहार (कुररकामिनी, कुररी) - यशस्तिलकचम्पू, p. 248 and the wailing of hundreds of women of Rāvana's household on the occasion of his death at the hands of Rama is reminiscent of the clamorous scene witnessed on a sand-bank when a large colony of nesting and brooding Terns is alarmed; विलेपुरेवं दीनास्ता राक्षसाधिपयोषितः । कुर्य इव दुःखार्ता वाष्पपर्याकुलेक्षणाः ॥ - रामायण, 6.110.26 Similar scenes are noticed elsewhere as well : स गङ्गामनुवृन्दानि स्त्रीणां भरतसत्तम । कुररीणामिवार्तानां क्रोशन्तीनां ददर्श ह ॥ –म. भा. 11.12.5. तासां नादो रुदतीनां तदाऽऽसीद् राजन् दुःखात्कुररीणामिवोच्चैः । - Ibid. 15.15.11 श्येनपक्षाभिमृष्टानां कुररीणामिवध्वनिः ।– प्रतिज्ञायौगन्धरायण, 4.24. The above passages, it may be noted, relate to events occurring in day time. , a falcon, it may be noted, is a bird of diurnal habits. The Whiskered Tern unlike others, as we have seen, constructs a nest of rushes and water weeds wound round a lotus leaf in a marsh or tank and has therefore been very aptly named पुष्करणायिका (पद्मशायिन्या in कल्पद्रुकोश ) explained as पद्मपत्रशायिका by डल्हणाचार्य on सुश्रुत and this is the same as पोक्खरसातकरें (v.1. पोक्खरसाति, i.c. पुष्करसाद-पुष्करसादी) for a water-bird in वेस्संतर जातक, verse 2104. The Vedic पुष्करसाद or पुष्करसद is therefore this Tern : कलविङ्कः लोहिताहिः पुष्करसादस्ते त्वाष्ट्रा वाज. संहिता, 24.31 1. This is a compound name for a single bird but has been incorrectly split up into here and E, and rendered as two different birds in the Pali Dictionary (P.T.S. edition). 2. पुष्करसाद is renderod simply as lotus-sitter' by Keith on तैत्ति संहिता, 5.5.14; पुष्करसर्प भ्रमर इत्येके by सायण on ibid, and पुष्करभक्षी पक्षिविशेष: by उब्बट on वाज. afgat. It is hardly necessary to state that no Tern feeds on any part of the lotus plant.
