पृष्ठम्:Birds in Sanskrit literature.djvu/२८

26 Birds in Sanskrit Literature "कन्दलं शिलीन्ध्रपुष्पे"- मेदिनी, and "कन्दली मृगपाक्षिविशेषयोः" - विश्वप्रकाश it would appear that कन्दलक and कन्दलीक (both with स्वायें कन्) became कलन्दक and f in Pali by metathesis, and both the latter like the former mean a kind of squirrel and a kind of bird. The bird is of course, the Nuthatch, and as for the squirrel it appears to be the Large Indian Squirrel (Sciurus indicus maximus) of the plains, which is maroon-red above and buff below, or the Large Red Flying Squirrel of Kashmir and Nepal which is chestnut above and pale below. They have a soft fur and are of a good size to yield a useful skin. It suggested that these are theft of the lexicons, and of these, probably the Large Indian Squirrel, gave the name of कलन्दक निवाप (v. 1. कालिन्दक निवाप) to a Buddhist Grove in बेलुवन where the life of a certain prince, sleeping under a tree and on the point of being bitten by a snake, was saved by the local sprite assuming the form of a squirrel and screaming a warning to him. That is definitely a squirrel is also proved by a little story in fafareas where one is described as frightening away its enemy by raising its puffed out tail. On the other hand, trustful of man as the Nuthatches are, it is equally probable that the fa derived its name from theft or birds. The resemblance of the bird's movements on a tree-trunk, including its ability to scuttle quickly down a tree-trunk head foremost, sideways or upside down along a branch, to those of a squirrel accounts, perhaps better still, for the name for the Nuthatch group as a whole. The voice of these birds is a 'chwit-chwit' or a sharp 'tsit' and as a musical instrument must have been a small soft-toned whistle for children named after the call of a Nuthatch. 4. Again, the कन्दगलक bird in the कन्दगलक जातक (v.l. कलन्तक in ललितविस्तर) is no other than the or bird, viz. the Nuthatch, the Chestnut-bellied or the Cinnamon-bellied variety. It is necessary to state, before setting out the story, that Nuthatches resemble Wood- peckers in the way they hunt and creep all over the trunks and bran- ches of trees for insects, that they have hard-pointed bills with which they bore holes in the hardest of nuts for their contents, and that they breed in natural holes in trees, and one of them, the Velvet-fronted Nuthatch, selects a nest-hole deserted by a Barbet or a Woodpecker or enlarges a small natural crevice in a tree with its bill. The story is that a Woodpecker (रुख कोट्ठक सकुन i.e. वृक्षकुट्टक or काष्ठकूट) living in खदिरवन and a were friends and the latter happened to pay a friendly visit to the former. He was entertained with plenty of succulent and soft worms so that he was tempted to shift permanently from his soft-wooded forest to the Catechu-forest. The Woodpecker advised 1. VII. ओपम्म कथा No. 3. 2. Forest of catechu trees. Nuthatches 27 him not to, for accustomed as he was to work upon soft-wood only, he could not bore into the hard Catechu wood for insects, but he would not listen, and actually broke his bill and neck at the first attempt against a Catechu tree-trunk and died. This interesting story leaves hardly any doubt as to the identity of and supports the identification of with a Nuthatch. 5. Synonymy No. 4, taken by itself, would appear to mean that ad or Pigeon is a kind of or Dove, and a (Dove) is a differ- ent bird. In other words, it is a larger category which includes both Pigeon and Dove as varieties within itself. Such an interpretation. seems reasonable enough but the next two equations which run almost parallel to the first show that the latter half of the first, viz. "कपोतो विहगा- न्तरम्" actually refers not to कपोत in the sense of a Dove but to कवक (-) as a different bird altogether. We have also seen that or is the same as the small bird known as firefrat. It follows therefore, that fat is also known by the name of including the feminine forrns कपोती or कपोतिका which would be a diminutive of कपोत and therefore comparable with the name feet as fagt, a little bird.¹ The aptness of the name of becomes apparent when we recall the blue-grey of the upper parts of all Nuthatches, resembling the colour of the Blue Rock Pigeon. Cf. for collyrium. 6. Lastly attention may be invited to the vernacular names given above which do seem to have some connection with Sanskrit fast-particularly the name fat which is perhaps a corruption of it. fere is also an abbreviation of ferrat (fert). The faf birds drawing out worms from the barks of trees referred to by भवभूति in :- “शाखापस्किरमाणविष्किरमुखव्याकृष्टकीटत्वच: " उत्तररामचरितम्, 2.9. are either Nuthatches or Woodpeckers. They have been called fafc² as they dig out their insect-food from the bark or soft rotten wood of various trees like the common fowl on the ground. The alternative reading of छाया for शाखा is incorrect and goes ill with 'त्वचा' (bark). 1. Campare the Bengali name of 'the invisible dove for a Nuthatch quoted above. 2. From fir with to scatter, cleave, split, etc.-M. W. विकीर्य भक्षयन्त्येते यस्मात्तस्मादि विष्किराः - भावप्रकाश, मासवर्ग.