Pet Birds of Bengal/Kher-Piddah (Indian Bush-chat)

Very closely related to the real Piddah is the Kher-Piddah or the Indian Bushchat, bearing the classical name of Pratincola maura. It is as sweet a singer and has almost ​the same characteristics as the other bird, though less known as a cage-favourite. It is dressed in a parti-coloured attire—a lovely black cap with a ruddy chestnut waistcoat, set off by its immaculate white collar—which gives it a distinctly handsome appearance and makes it a conspicuous figure amidst its furzy surroundings. But all this splendour of its gay plumage is lost to mankind, as unlike the Dhayal, it is too shy to visit our gardens and orchards. It gives a wide berth to human surroundings but avoids forestsField Notes as well like the Piddah. It prefers the open, keeping to tracts covered with small furzy bushes, or to cultivated fields, specially corn, maize and millet fields, and sugar-cane plantations, where they destroy the insects. It perches on a clod of earth, a post or a swaying stem in search for insects, and flies down to the ground for just sufficient time to catch its prey. It is prodigiously active. The opening and jerking up of the tail at ​ short intervals is a frequent habit with this Piddah. This bird is commonly believed to be a winter visitor, migrating to Siberia in summer. But it is doubtful if such small birds, that never associate in flocks, undertake such long and arduous journeys. They are very probably local migrants. So many birds breed in the Himalayas and ​in the hill-ranges of the Punjab and the N. W. Frontier Province that Oates is inclined to differentiate it from the Siberian species which differs in the depth of its black and red colours. At all events, during winter, birds of this species populate the whole of Northern India as far south as Belgaum. Further south, its existence has not been noted, but Hume says it has been reportedDistribution common in south-west Mysore. It is commonly met with in Bengal in winter. Two of the birds in my aviary were caught within a few miles from Calcutta. In summer the Kher-Piddah is found throughout the Himalayas from Afghanistan to Assam up to an elevation of 5,500 feet. It nests also in the Salt-Ranges, the Suleiman hills, in the plains skirting these hills, and in the valleys of the Sutlej and the Beas.

It breeds in April and May and has probably more than one brood in the year. The situation of the nest varies according to locality. It may be found in some low ​thick bush or shrub, or dense tuft of grass, on or near the ground. Sometimes the crevices on hillsNests and Eggs near the fields serve the purpose. Its nursery is generally a cup of coarse grass mingled with moss, lined with fine grass, fur, cattle-hair, or feathers. Nests placed in holes in walls are mere shapeless pads. The eggs are four or five in number, pale-green with brownish-red spots.

The reason why in India it is scarce as a cage-bird is not difficult to detect. It evades the gaze of bird-fanciers on account of its retiring nature and its song can hardly compare with that of the Dhayal and the Shama, which are thereforeCage-life so much liked as cagepets. But the Kher-Piddah is undoubtedly more handsome bird than the pied Bush-chat, and to those who are fastidious about size and colour, its value can hardly be overlooked. As compared with the Piddah, its behaviour in an aviary is exemplary. It is neither rough nor irascible in its dealings ​with its mess-mates, though it does not forget now and then to show its temper towards its own kind. It is undoubtedly the more delicate of the two and therfore it is not safe to leave it in the company of any pugnacious birds. Sheer dread of company is enough to kill it. Insect is its favourite dish, but the invaluable satoo meal cannot be despensed with. Bath and sunrays are also indispensible to keeping it in health and spirits.

Like the Piddah, it undergoes a seasonal change of plumage, but in it the change is more marked. In summer, the whole upper body of the male is black except a wing-patch, rump, upper tail-coverts, and a large spot on each side ofColoration the neck, all of which are white. The breast and lower parts are bright-red—a colour which is entirely absent in the Pied Bush-chat. The red is deep on the breast and pales lower down. The female is a reddish-brown bird without the white collar on the neck. In summer it looks a little ​paler. The young is a brown bird with mottlings on the breast.

In winter the black feathers of the male are edged with reddish-brown so that the cumulative effect is to give it a reddish-brown appearance instead of black. The bird at this time so closely resembles the female that but for the white collar in the neck the sexes are well-nigh indistinguishable. Except when they are in full dress in the mating season, it is difficult to come across two birds which are exactly alike in colour. This is due to the fact that the young birds are gradually assuming adult plumage, while the feathers of the old are undergoing a process of continual abrasion.

Our Kher-Piddah is a cousin of the English Stone-chat which "one may often note by a furzy wayside, perched on a bush." The English bird has a "nice little song and breeds early in spring, lays five eggs of dull pale sea-green with reddish spots". In coloration, too, they are similar, except that the white portions in the English bird are broader than in the Indian.