296 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XVIII. 



being distinctly hoarse), then the well known " cuck-coo " repeated over 

 and over again. Sometimes the note is " Kuk-coo " and sometimes, though rarely, 

 the ordinary note is preceded by a syllable " ak " as "ak-cuck-coo." Often the 

 call stops at the first syllable " cuck". When a female is seen or heard the 

 notes are " cuck-coo, cuck-cuck-coo, cuck-cuck-coo " in a rising crescendo 

 denoting extreme excitement. In my experience the cuckoo's notes do not 

 alter as the season advances, as many observers assert. The bird is possibly 

 more vigorous at the beginning of the breeding season, and his call may then 

 be more prolonged, but the trisyllabic call " cuck-cuck-coo" is entirely connected 

 with the proximity of the female. The variations of the ordinary call given 

 above are just as likely to be heard at the beginning of the season as at the 

 end. The note of the female is a bubbling " quick-quick-quick-quick, " some- 

 times repeated more slowly. Occasionally she gives the hoarse chuckle like the 

 male. The cuckoo's call was still occasionally heard when I left Thandiani 

 on 9th July, but the breeding season was evidently rapidly drawing to a close. 

 The esrgs are commonly laid in the nests of Oreicola ferrea and Larvivora 

 brunnea. I found no cuckoo's eggs in. the nests of Trocalopterum lineatum or 

 Acanthopneuste occipitalis. I took only three eggs from nests, and extraordinary 

 to relate they were all blue ! Two taken from the nests of 0. ferrea were a 

 greenish-blue very slightly spotted at the larger end with olive-green. The 

 other taken from the nest of L. brunnea was a beautiful hedgesparrow blue 

 unspotted. I was so puzzled at finding blue cuckoo's eggs, which I had every 

 reason to believe were laid by the present species, there being no other Cuckoos 

 to my knowledge frequenting the top of the hill, that I determined if possible to 

 solve the enigma by examining an oviduct egg. With some difficulty 1 

 succeeded in bagging a female on 15th June and to my delight took the 

 fragments of a blue egg (it having unfortunately been broken by the fall when 

 shot) from the oviduct. This egg tallied with the one taken from the nest of 

 L. brunnea. I have sent the skin and eggs to Mr. E. C. Stuart Baker for his 

 information and opinion.* In two of the nests the cuckoo's egg had already 

 been deposited when I found the nests, but in the third instance I did not get a 

 cuckoo's egg till I had visited the nest for the third time, the cuckoo 

 having meanwhile deposited her egg and extracted one of those of the parent 

 bird. Young cuckoos were found in the nests of both 0. ferrea and L. 

 brunnea. The young of the foster parents are ejected by the young cuckoo as 

 early as three days after being hatched and before the latter's eyes are opened. 

 (1105). Cuculus saturates. — The " up-poop-poop-poop-poop " of the Hima- 

 layan Cuckoo is a common sound down hill during the month of May and June- 

 I once heard the bird calling at about 8,000 feet, but this is an unusually high 

 altitude for this species at Thandiani. I did not hear the call after June 30th. 

 Although this cuckoo's notes may at first be confounded with those of the 

 Hoopoe there is a good deal of difference. The cadence is the same, but the 

 notes are much deeper and louder and are heard at a great distance. The 



• See page 261 of this issue. -Eds. 



