20 The crow family काकवंश Crow, choughs & Nutcrackers 1. The Raven द्रोण or बुद्धकाकः 1. 2. The Brown-necked Raven-2. रक्तद्रोणकाक 3. The Hooded Crow- नीलास्यकाक 4. The Jungle and carrion crow कृष्ण or वनुकाक, काकोत 5. The Rook-नशाक or नष्टकाक, सितनीलच काक 6. The House Crow--or भस्मच्छवि-काक, बायस 7. The Jackdaw-चौरिकाक, पढचम- 25745 8. The Choughs सुवर्णकाक 9. The Nutcrackers-for सारङ्गकाकः Birds in Sanskrit Literature Magpies Tree Pic कृशकूट Kashmir and Black- rumped Magpies- कालकूट 3. Red-billed and Yellow- 2. Broad billed billed Magpies पूर्णकूट Roller-हेमतुण्ड " or स्वर्णचूड-चाय 4. Green Magpie-fufer 3. Indian Roller चाय Jays वनचाप Rollers 1. Kashmir Roller- नीलामचाष
- The Rollers, though placed in a separate family by scientists, were regarded by the
ancients as allied to the jays and have therefore been included here. 2 TITS 1. The great majority of Tits are small sparrow-like birds four to six inches long, some with and others without a crest. All the species are very much alike in their habits and behaviour. Extremely active and sprightly, they spend much of their time on trees, clinging to twigs and flowering stems in a variety of acrobatic postures often hanging upside down like little bats, in search of their insect food. They also eat buds and small berries. The males have a cheerful, loud, and clear whistling song during the breeding season from spring t autumn. Most of the species occupy the outer Himalayas but the Grey and the Yellow-cheeked Tits are resident in the plains. The Grey Tit is bluish and black above and white below with a black neck and a broad black stripe running down from the throat to the abdomen and a white cheek-patch. The Yellow-cheeked species is a greenish and yellow bird with a pointed black crest and a black band (afe or efe) down the lower parts as in the Grey Tit. Both are of arboreal habits. 2. The only vernacular names available for any of these birds, other than in the Hill dialects of Assam, are (i) Sabzaroshan ('the light or charm of the green trees ) in Urdu and (ii) Räma-gangrá (राम: सुन्दरे, श्यामवर्णे + गुद्ध शब्दे- 'the beautiful voiced'?) in Bengali for the Indian Grey Tit. The first name is used by bird-fanciers in Central India and the second is noted in F.B.I. and this last would seem to agree in sense with Sanskrit fer (the little sweet voiced bird, बल्गु-मधुरभाषणे) which occurs only in its Pali form af in the Commentary on the Dhamma-pada edited by H.C. Nor- man, Vol. 3, p. 223. The Pali-English Dictionary (P.T.S. edition) renders the name as 'a small song-bird'. f also means a bat and prefer should be a small bat or a pipistrelle, and having regard to the behaviour of the little Tits of often hanging upside down described above it would seem that they are the safer of the Commentary. The expression पन्बहारे ओलंबता used for the खुद्द वगुलि by the commentator" refers to their penduline attitudes when engaged upon a search for insects 1. Since means both a little bat and a bat-like bird and as both these roost and nest in holes it is perhaps better to derive the name from T, a hole : cf. and for a bridle which goes into the hollow (, ) of the horse's mouth.
