Birds in Sanskrit Literature along the rough and broken roof of an open mountain cave. eft of the age list in a should be the same. 22 3. सद्बा ( Hindi, सट्टा, सटा or सटैला from सट सटा a crest ) is another Sanskrit bird-name which may well belong to a crested Tit the Yellow-cheeked Tit. The term also means a musical instrument, probably a child's whistle so named after the little bird's whistling call (cf. Hindi etet, a whistle). 4. If the equation, पट्टि बल्गुलो, of the विश्वलोचन-कोश refers to वस्गुलि as a bird it gives us a third name for such of the Tits as have either a tiara. i.e. an ornamented crest or a broad black band stretching from the neck to the abdomen, and these like the Grey and the Yellow-cheeked Tits would be पट्टिबगुलि For पट्टि in the above sense see पट्टि and उर पट्टिका under तल- सारिका, in M. W. and of also वक्त्रपट्टे तु तलिश तलसारकम्-अभि. चिन्तामणि हेमचन्द्र has श्यामाबल्गुली which has been illustrated by his commentator महेन्द्र with "श्यामेव (श्यामैव ?) लम्बते प्लक्षे" – 'the श्यामा is in a pendant attitude in the ficus infectoria tree. No lexicon equates TT with 'a bat' and the term, therefore, refers to the ef (bat-like birds), viz. the Tits. 5. The largest member of the Tit family is the eight inch long Sultan Tit of Nepal and Eastern Himalayas. The cock-bird is shining black with a beautiful brilliant yellow crest and deep yellow lower parts. It has a var- iety of shrill calls, the commonest being 'chip-tree-tree', and an occasion- al plaintive high-pitched 'pway, pway, pway'. Now a certain bird named स्वर्णशिव or स्वर्णचूल (v.1. सुवर्णचूल) figures in a story related in कथासरित्सागर, 10. 9 where a young prince playfully snatches away a musical instrument called far from his sister and she thereupon curses him to be immediately transformed into the bird, presumably because of a close similarity of the sound of the instrument with the bird's voice. M. Williams conjectures that the bird is probaly the Blue Jay or the Indian Roller because one of the names for it is e, but the voice of the Roller is anything but musi- cal. N.M. Penzer, on the other hand, identifies with the Hoopoe but the crest of this bird is practically of the same rufous-fawn colour as the head, neck and breast, and is also tipped black. As against this, the name clearly implies a sharp contrast with the colour of the adjacent parts, and it is sub- mitted that the Sultan Tit with its brilliant and entirely golden-yellow crest, worn jauntily on a shining black head, has a much better claim to the name. 6. We have therefore सट्वा and बल्गुली or क्षुद्र बल्गुलि as common names for the Tits as a group, श्यामावल्गुलि or बल्गुलि श्यामा for the dark coloured Grey Tit, and स्वर्णशिव or स्वर्णचूल for the beautiful Sultan Tit. 7. It is possible, as suggested in the article on Bulbuls (Art. 6), that Tits possessing white ear-coverts, e.g. the Grey Tit, the Black-Tits and other allied forms were regarded as little Bulbuls of the ff type. The identifications in this article should thus be regarded as tentative rather than conclusive. 1. सटुवा may be from सट+वत् contaminated by सटा or imitative of the bird's call 2. Means also "yellow orpiment' which is significant. 3. See Penzer's Ocean of Story, Vol. 5 foonote at p. 160. 3 PARROT-BILLS AND SUTHORAS 1. The striking feature common to this curious group of birds is their bill which resembles a parrot's. I have not been able to find a name. for one in Sanskrit but from the fact that some of them are known in Hindi as gater I am satisfied that they certainly had a name in Sanskrit though it has not been preserved in the lexicons that are extant. The name gater (Suthorà) is evidently derived from Sanskrit which is syno- nymous with शुरूवोटि (शुक, a parrot and नोटि, a bill), thus शुक्रतुण्ड-सुरु | ठोर -सुठोर + अ = सुठोरा, ठोर from तुण्ड meaning a beak in Hindi Certain plants are also known as and g, and I would not be surprised if at least one of these was also a name for the birds in question just as the words and fefgua mean both a particular plant and a parti- cular bird-the Racket-tailed Drongo and a parrot or cuckoo respectively- Arts. 15, 37 & 38. धन्वन्, कन्दली, रज्जुवाल, etc. are other names which have similar double meanings. 2. According to अनेकार्यसंग्रह of हेमचन्द्र and the विश्वप्रकाशकोश, "ब्रोटि" means a kind of bird, and it appears to me that owing to a misunder- standing of an older text which gave something like fethe compound name atfe was split up into and atfe, and each was taken for a kind of bird. Once this was done others followed in the wake and atfe by itself became a kind of bird. The Hindi name gater thus clearly points to qafe as 'a name for this group of birds, unless affe by itself is established as a specific name for a particular bird. That compound bird-names have occasionally been misunderstood and split up may be seen from the example of किकिदीवि mentioned by पेक्यूरि in his औणादिक पदार्णव :- "एके तु किकिदीवो तु नामनी द्वे न्यरूपयन्– Part 4, 168. Similarly the name - for the Neophron Vulture has been wrongly split up into (i) and ge in M. W. as discussed under Vulture No. 6, Art. 51. A mistake of this kind, once made, is copied and re-copied by subsequent compilers of lexicons and obtains a fictitious authority. fe is a kind of fish having a mouth resembling the bill of the Common Heron and this offers the strongest argument in support of the name rate for the Parrot-Bills and Suthoras, formed in the same way, while we have very probable synonyms in wer and as well. 1. Hindi Shabda Sagar सुठोरा शुक्रतुण्ड शुकनोटि.
