Common Babbler -- Passerine

I earlier made a posting on the Common Babbler, but am including below an extract from a book by Frank Finn 1902, entitled “Garden and Aviary Birds of India.” Frank Finn was part of the British Colonial Service and a dedicated amateur ornithologist. There are many parts of his book, now out-of-print which have an unusual and fresh viewpoint towards birds we are normally quite familiar with here in India.

His chapters on aviary birds and the description of interspecies relationships, sometimes good – and sometimes very bad, are fascinating, and I hope to include more extracts from his book in later postings. But to begin with his chapter on the Passerine, Common Babbler:

The Passerines

"More than half of the known species of birds belong to the great Passerine order, so called from the Latin name of its most prominent member, Passer, the Sparrow. Birds of this order are usually small, the Raven being the biggest, while some are almost the smallest of birds. The Sparrow and Mynah represent fair average sizes of Passerine birds.

They can always be distinguished by their feet: the foot of a Sparrow or Crow will serve as a model for all. The shank is slight and covered behind with long entire plates, and before with a single row of large broad scales, or even with one continuous horny plate; there are three toes before, unconnected by any web or other junction and one behind, which, taking it with its claw, is as big as or bigger than any of the rest.

The shank may be long or short, and the foot as a whole large or small as compared with the bird's body, but the style of scaling and proportion of the toes is always unmistakable. The shape, and the wings, tail and beak vary a great deal in Passerine birds; but they always have large heads in proportion to their size.

Their young are always hatched blind, helpless, and naked or nearly so; their nests are usually in a bush or tree, and they live in pairs in the breeding season. They are the most skilful nest-builders of all birds, and the only ones which are commonly accounted songsters. They bear captivity well, but are not so easy to breed in that state as some groups of birds.

The order is divided into many families, which are not always easy to distinguish, as there are many connecting links. One of the families is the Babbler. Which form the most numerous group of Indian birds and are, of all the smaller fry the most interesting in my opinion, whether at large or in the aviary.

The Common Babbler

They vary a good deal in size, but there is something about their general style which marks them off at once when seen in life, though, as skins in a museum collection, they are not so easy to separate. They have very short rounded wings, and rather long tails. As a rule their plumage is lax and fluffy, not close and sleek, and their legs and feet are strong, not to say coarse. Their bills are moderate in size; not actually slender, but not thick like a Crow's.

Common Babbler Feeding

Common Babbler in Tree

Common Babbler Calling

They usually go about in parties, and have a weak flight, never going far at a time, and often whining and skimming alternately, like Partridges. They feed mostly on insects, and take hold of their food in one foot, if they wish to break it up. On trees or on the ground they are very active, moving about by long hops, for very few of them run. Males and females are alike in colour, and the young resemble them. They are very affectionate and constantly caress each other with their bills.

Affection Babblers in Tree

Common Babbler Preening

THE SAT-BHAI (Crateropus Canorus), is the most familiar of the larger Babblers, the native name, which of course means seven brothers, having been practically accepted as English. I have not thought it necessary to figure this common bird; everyone must have noticed it, with its pale-drab, dust-coloured plumage, cunning-looking white eyes, and sickly-white legs and bill. It is found all over India in the plains and low down in the hills, and comes freely into gardens, making its presence known obtrusively by a squeaky babbling varied by hysterical outbursts.

Common Babbler Nest and Eggs

In confinement it is very easy to tame, will eat table craps readily and is amusing for a time; but nobody would want to keep such a frowsy unmusical creature for long. Interesting as its habits undoubtedly are. Birds which I turned out after studying them for some time remained so tame that they would still take food from the hand; and I imagine that a hand-reared one would make a very nice pet. The nest is an open cup-shaped one, placed low down and the eggs are of a most lovely blue."

Adult Common Babbler Feeding Young