The saucy bullies,
the half-tipsy roysterers, tired of domineering over every participator
of the feast, dared to publicly flout me, defiantly sweeping with their
tails the air, as an Irishman, "blue mouldy for want of a bateing,"
sweeps the floor with his coat, and chattered and scolded in every tone
of elated bravado. The bibacious drongo can be as demure as any. When he
comes to dart among the eddying insects, glorying in the first cool
gleams of the sunshine, he will take his ease on a mango branch, make
jerky bows and flick the fine feathers of his tail, and "cheep" in
timorous accents. He is sober then, quite parsonified in demeanour; his
speech "all in the set phrase of peace," and would be scandalised by the
mere mention of melaleuca nectar.
A professor of physiology asserts that rabbits are very curious when
under the influence of liquor, and that a drunken kangaroo is brutally
aggressive. The drongo is merely pugnacious and noisy. Having heard of
the melancholy effects of over-indulgence in melaleuca nectar, I was not
at all disposed to judge of the misbehaviour harshly or to take personal
offence; for the drongo is a respectable bird, and the opportunities for
excess come but twice a year.
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