"Ugh, ugh! all lies! Bird talk!" grunted Boar. "What say you, Sa"-zada?"
"It is true," declared the Keeper, much to the disgust of his questioner; "for in The Book are also other true tales of c.o.c.katoo. The Mem-Sahib has written that he was a great mischief-maker. She says that on the back veranda of her bungalow was a filter, and when "c.o.c.ky"
wanted a bath, he used to turn the tap, but never knew enough to shut it off, so the filter was always running dry.
"Also, there was a guava tree in the compound, and our friend ate all the guavas just as they ripened, so no one but c.o.c.ky got any of the fruit. That he was always fighting with Jock, her Scotch Terrier, and the clamor fair made her head ache."
"Whatever Sa"-zada reads from The Book is most certainly true,"
commented Magh.
"I"ve been thinking," began the Adjutant, solemnly----
"You look like it," growled Wolf.
"Of a story about Kauwa," continued the Adjutant----
"He stole three silver spoons from my Mem-Sahib," interrupted c.o.c.ky hastily, suddenly remembering the incident, "and hid them in the Dog-cart, where they were found next day; which shows that he is neither wise nor honest."
"Mine is a true tale," declared Adjutant, with great dignity. "One morning, looking calmly over the great city to see that all had been tidied up, I saw my little black friend, whose voice is like unto the squeak of a Bullock-cart, crouched in an open window, with wings well spread ready for flight.
""A new piece of thieving," thought I, and, drawing closer, I saw Kauwa hop to the floor, pa.s.s over to a bed on which slept a Sahib, and gently take a slice of toast from the top of a cup; then away went the thief.
"But the full wickedness was later, for when the Sahib awoke he spoke to his servant in the manner which c.o.c.katoo has related of the ship.
And when the other, who was of the Black Kind, declared he had put the toast beside his Master, the Sahib beat him for a liar. Even three mornings did Kauwa take the toast; but on the fourth the Sahib, who was pretending to sleep, nearly broke his back with the cast of a boot."
"Jungle Dwellers are Jungle Dwellers, and City Dwellers are City Dwellers," commenced Hornbill, gravely, "and I"m so glad I"m a Jungle Dweller. These tales show what city life is like. Save for an occasional row with Magh"s friends, Hanuman and the rest, whose stomachs are out of all proportion to the quant.i.ty of fruit to be had, I have led a very peaceful life in the Jungle."
[Ill.u.s.tration: "LEAVING JUST A PLACE FOR HER SHARP BEAK."]
"Tell me," queried Magh, maliciously, "do your Young roost on your nose?"
"No; that is to keep inquisitive folks at a distance. And, talking of Young, when my wife has laid her two big eggs in a hole in some tree, I shut her up there with the eggs--make her stay home to mind the house and the oncoming family. I plaster up the hole with mud, leaving just a place for her sharp beak; this to keep the Monkeys from stealing her and the eggs."
"Kaw-aw-aw! Talking of nests," said Kauwa, "when I was in Calcutta I designed a nest that would last forever--yes, forever. Each year before that time, because of the monsoon winds, my nest had always been destroyed; but the time I speak of, having a job on hand----"
"On beak, you mean!" laughed Sa"-zada.
"Aw-haw!--to clean up about a cook-house behind a certain place of the Sahib"s in which they bottled water of a fierce strength--as I say, being busy in this same compound, I spied many, many twigs of wire."
"What"s wire?" asked Mooswa; "I"ve never, that I know of, eaten such twigs."
Sa"-zada explained, "Kauwa means bottled soda water, I fancy, and the wire from the corks."
"A thought came to me," continued Kauwa, "to build my nest of these bright little things, and I did, first getting my mate"s opinion on the matter, of course. Dead Pigs! but it _was_ a nest! We would swing, and jump, and hang to it by our beaks, and never a break in the wall. But I had forgotten all about the selfish desire of the Men--but that was after. The first trouble was when Cuckoo--a proper _budmash_ bird she is--came and laid two eggs in the nest. I saw the difference in the eggs at once, but my mate declared that they were all her own laying.
She took rather a pride in her ability to lay eggs--to tell you the truth, we quarreled over it."
"I believe that," yawned Adjutant.
"However, she had her way, and started to hatch out these foreign devils; but the Men, as I have said, seeing my beautiful nest, sent a Man of low caste up the tree, and he took it away, Cuckoo eggs and all.
It was a good joke on the Cuckoo Bird, and I was so mad at the way everything turned out, Caw-ha! I never made it again."
"I can swallow a plantain at one gulp," said Hornbill proudly.
"Why do you toss it up first?" asked Sa"-zada, alluding to the peculiar habit the Hornbill has of throwing everything into the air, and catching it as he swallows it.
"It"s all in the way of slow eating," answered Hornbill.
"Now," said Myna, "it is surely my turn. I, Myna, who was the pride of the Calcutta Zoo in the matter of speech, have sat here like a Tucktoo not saying a word, and listening to such as c.o.c.katoo boasting about the few paltry oaths he picked up from the Sailor-kind. Why, d.a.m.n your eyes, sir----"
And before Sa"-zada could still the tumult, c.o.c.katoo and Myna, the best talking Bird of all India, were hurling the most unparliamentary language at each other that had ever been bandied about a Bird gathering.
When Sa"-zada had stopped the indelicate scolding of the two Birds Myna proceeded to tell of his life.
"I was born in the Burma hills, amongst the Shans. That"s where I got my beautiful blue-black coat and lovely yellow beak."
"Modest Bird," sneered Magh.
"It was Mah Thin who snared me; but she was good to me, though--rice and fruit, all I could eat; and she never once forgot to put the turmeric and ground chillies in my rice; for, you know, if I did not get something hot in my food I"d soon die. I was somewhat like c.o.c.katoo in that a Ship-man bought me and took me to Calcutta. He made me a most wise bird, and taught me many clever sayings. And when he was in Calcutta with his ship I would be put in the Zoo, so that the Sahibs from all parts might hear my speech.
"One day Tom--that was my master"s name; he taught me to call him Tom--said to me, "To-morrow the _Lat_ Sahib, the Sirdar, and many ladies are coming to hear you talk; Myna." Then he made me repeat over and over again, "Good-morning, your Excellency.""
"It was a hard word he gave you," commented Magh.
"It was indeed. Let claw-nosed c.o.c.katoo try it; he thinks he can talk--let him try that."
"Avast there, you lubber----" commenced c.o.c.ky, but Sa"-zada stopped him.
"Well, I said it over and over, and over again, and Tom was so pleased he gave me a graft mango to eat. Next day the Viceroy and many Mem-Sahibs and Sahibs gathered about my cage, and the Viceroy said, "Good-morning, Polly." Now this made me mad--to be called Polly, as though I had a hooked nose like c.o.c.katoo; and in my anger I got excited, and, for-the-love-of-hot-spiced-rice, I couldn"t think of what Tom had told me to say.
""Speak up!" said Tom.
"In my anger, and forgetting the other thing, and seeing so many strange faces against the very bars of my cage, I blurted out, "I"ll see you d.a.m.ned first!" just as the sailors used to teach me."
"Caw-haw-haw-haw! Very funny, indeed. Next to a fat bone, or the hiding of a silver spoon, I like a joke myself," commented Kauwa. "Once at the first edge of the Hot Time I went to Simla. That was also at the time of the going of the Sahibs, but after Calcutta it was dull--fair stupid.
"One morning, as I was feeling most lonesome, I spied a long row of queer little Donkeys standing with their tails to a fence. They had brought loads of brick. I flew to the fence, and reaching far down, pulled the tail of my first Donkey. Much food! but he did kick--it made me laugh. I pulled the tail of every Donkey of the line, and when I had finished there wasn"t a board left on the fence. Then the Man who was master of the fence, and the one that was master of the Donkeys, fought over this matter, and pulled each about by the feathers that were on their heads. It was the only real pleasant day I had in Simla."
"Did-you-do-it!" screamed the Redwattled Lapwing, suddenly roused to animation by falling off Mooswa"s back, where he had been trying to balance himself with his poor front-toed feet.
"Caw-w-w! I did; and for three grains of corn I"d pull your tail, too."
"I wasn"t speaking to you," retorted t.i.tiri the Lapwing; "I was dreaming of my old home in India--dreaming that the hunters had come into the rice fields to shoot the poor Paddy Birds and Bakula (Egret) for their feathers."
"Murderers, you should call them, not Hunters," exclaimed Hathi. "It makes me sniff in my nose now when I think of the Birds I"ve seen murdered, just for their feathers."
"It"s an outrageous shame," declared Sa"-zada.
"I did all I could," a.s.serted Lapwing. "When I saw the Gun-men coming, sneaking along, crouched like Pardus----"
"Sneaking like Pardus--go on, Good Bird!" chimed in Magh.