Angad has named the three mynah chicks Chip, Spock and Cap. We don't know their gender, but we're assuming Spock is a guy. Cap is kind of tiny and ambiguous. Chip is just biiig, because he (or she) was the first born. She got the juiciest worms and the big winged insects-- possibly those ants that grow wings when the first rain hits the warm earth. We called them Pak Mui (Pak=wings, mui=ant in Konkani. This year, we saw them fly out of anthills in droves when the monsoon reached Goa).
The mynah in our window often reminds me of Charles Darwin and his time in the jungle. A hundred and fifty years ago, the jungles would have been more dense, civilisations less crowded, less threatening. How he observed for days and months how animals reared their young, how they young fought for survival, who won and who lost out.
Chip hatched on the 27th of June. Spock a day later and Cap arrived a few days after his two older siblings. By this time, Chip was older, stronger and able to muster enough strength to hold her head high, grabbing most of the chunky worms and insects. Spock was growing too, but little Cap, he's remained small and chirpy. If they are competitors in the food chain, why don't they attack each other? What is encoded in our genes that makes us not attack our own blood?
Now Chip is almost as big as her parents and she climbs to the mouth of the nest and calls out to her parents. I think she'll begin venturing out soon. I can see that the mother is not feeding them as often as she was, she's also not shoving the food she gets down her throat, but challenging them to peck, grab, chew and swallow.
There is something interesting about Cap too. He's the youngest, smallest in size, does not get the cues his mother gives when she senses danger...like when I open the door she makes this guttural, alarmed cheeeep cheeeep that is obviously meant to signal her chicks to lie low. Both Spock and Chip immediately bury themselves in the nest becoming almost invisible. But Cap, he's a little oblivious, a little rebellious, a little unaware. He keeps calling out to his mother, still standing at the door. It makes me think that perhaps, the younger sibling, on account of being the one who lost out in the natural order, got the smallest share of the pie, did not grow as much in size, has something else aiding him, a certain fearlessness that perhaps aids his survival. Chip on the other hand, is well fed, strong, cautious. Spock on the other hand, sigh, is the one with a little bit of both. That also makes him the least interesting, with the most interesting name! Wonder what kind of parents they will make?
A bird in the window can give you a little peek into life itself. Chip Spock and Cap, despite the mites that are crawling out of their window and the stink they have created, are interesting little creatures. More when they begin to take wing!
