Birds decline to be fettered by the calendar.  Many of the species which do not ordinarily nest until April or May occasionally begin operations in March, hence nests of the following species, which are dealt with next month, may occur in the present one:—­the tree-pie, tailor-bird, common myna, bank-myna, brown rock-chat, brown-backed robin, pied wagtail, red-winged bush-lark, shikra, red-wattled lapwing, yellow-throated sparrow, bee-eater, blue rock-pigeon, green pigeon and grey partridge.

March the 15th marks the beginning of the close season for game birds in all the reserved forests of Northern India.  This is none too soon, as some individuals begin breeding at the end of the month.

APRIL

The breeze moves slow with thick perfume
From every mango grove;
From coral tree to parrot bloom
The black bees questing rove,
The koil wakes the early dawn. 
WATERFIELD, Indian Ballads.

The fifteenth of April marks the beginning of the “official” hot weather in the United Provinces; but the elements decline to conform to the rules of man.  In the eastern and southern districts hot-weather conditions are established long before mid-April, while in the sub-Himalayan belt the temperature remains sufficiently low throughout the month to permit human beings to derive some physical enjoyment from existence.  In that favoured tract the nights are usually clear and cool, so that it is very pleasant to sleep outside beneath the starry canopy of the heavens.

It requires an optimist to say good things of April days, even in the sub-Himalayan tract.  Fierce scorching west winds sweep over the earth, covering everything with dust.  Sometimes the flying sand is so thick as to obscure the landscape, and often, after the wind has dropped, the particles remain suspended for days as a dust haze.  The dust is a scourge.  It is all-pervading.  It enters eyes, ears, nose and mouth.  To escape it is impossible.  Closed doors and windows fail to keep it from entering the bungalow.  The only creatures which appear to be indifferent to it are the fowls of the air.  As to the heat, the non-migratory species positively revel in it.  The crows and a few other birds certainly do gasp and pant when the sun is at its height, but even they, save for a short siesta at midday, are as active in April and May as schoolboys set free from a class-room.  April is the month in which the spring crops are harvested.  As soon as the Holi festival is over the cultivators issue forth in thousands, armed with sickles, and begin to reap.  They are almost as active as the birds, but their activity is forced and not spontaneous; like most Anglo-Indian officials they literally earn their bread by the sweat of the brow.  Thanks to their unceasing labours the countryside becomes transformed during the month; that which was a sea of smiling golden-brown wheat and barley becomes a waste of short stubble.