The whoot, whoot, whoot of the crow-pheasant booms from almost every thicket.  The iora, the coppersmith, the barbet, the golden-backed woodpecker, and the white-breasted kingfisher continue to call merrily.  The pied starlings are in full voice; their notes form a very pleasing addition to the avian chorus.  Those magpie-robins that have not brought nesting operations to a close are singing vigorously.  The king-crows are feeding their young ones in the greenwood tree, and crooning softly to them pitchu-wee.  At the jhils the various waterfowl are nesting and each one proclaims the fact by its allotted call.  Much strange music emanates from the well-filled tank; the indescribable cries of the purple coots, the curious “fixed bayonets” of the cotton teal and the weird cat-like mews of the jacanas form the dominant notes of the aquatic symphony.

In July the black-breasted or rain-quail (Coturnix coromandelica) is plentiful in India.  Much remains to be discovered regarding the movements of this species.  It appears to migrate to Bengal, the United Provinces, the Punjab and Sind shortly before the monsoon bursts, but it is said to arrive in Nepal as early as April.  It would seem to winter in South India.  It is a smaller bird than the ordinary grey quail and has no pale cross-bars on the primary wing feathers.  The males of this species are held in high esteem by Indians as fighting birds.  Large numbers of them are netted in the same way as the grey quail.  Some captive birds are set down in a covered cage by a sugar-cane field in the evening.  Their calls attract a number of wild birds, which settle down in the sugar-cane in order to spend the day there.  At dawn a net is quietly stretched across one end of the field.  A rope is then slowly dragged along over the growing crop in the direction of the net.  This sends all the quail into the net.

Very fair sport may be obtained in July by shooting rain-quail that have been attracted by call birds.

July marks the end of one breeding season and the beginning of another.  As regards the nesting season, birds fall into four classes.  There is the very large class that nests in spring and summer.  Next in importance is the not inconsiderable body that rears up its broods in the rains when the food supply is most abundant.  Then comes the small company that builds nests in the pleasant winter time.  Lastly there are the perennials—­such birds as the sparrow and the dove, which nest at all seasons.  In the present month the last of the summer nesting birds close operations for the year, and the monsoon birds begin to lay their eggs.  July is therefore a favourable month for bird-nesting.  Moreover, the sun is sometimes obscured by cloud and, under such conditions, a human being is able to remain out of doors throughout the day without suffering much physical discomfort.

With July ends the normal breeding season of the tree-pies, white-eyes, ioras; king-crows, bank-mynas, paradise flycatchers, brown rock-chats, Indian robins, dhayals, red-winged bush-larks, sunbirds, rollers, swifts, green pigeons, lapwings and butcher-birds.