LOCAL BIRD-MIGRATION IN INDIA. 353 



(1120). The Indian Koel. — (Eudynamis honorata.) 



Blaniord writes of this species: — "Distribution. Throughout India, 

 Ceylon and Burma h except on the Himalayas about the tropical zone. 

 This bird is rare in Sind and the Punjab and is not known further 

 west. To the eastward its range extends to China and to the south- 

 east throughout the Malay Archipelago to Flores. Hume found 

 it. in the Laccadive Islands, and it is common on the Andamans and 

 Nicobars. The race from the countries east of the Bay of Bengal has 

 been distinguished as E. malayana on account of its rather large size 

 and little stronger bill ; the female, too, is said to be more rufous, but 

 the differences are neither well marked nor constant." Its effas have 

 been found (rarely) in Ceylon, and in Madras, although seeino-how 

 very abundant it is in the capital of the Southern Presidency, I 

 observed remarkably few young koels there. Ferguson states that 

 although rare it is a permanent resident in Travancore. 



Barnes (Birds of Bombay Presidency, p. 181) writes: — " The Indian 

 Koel is very common throughout the district, exceptiug Sind, where 

 it appears to be somewhat rare. Some of them at least are per- 

 manent residents, but during the breeding season they are every- 

 where more common." 



Jesse writing of the Lucknow district says: — " According to Reid 

 the koel is a permanent resident, but I fancy it migrates, at any rate 

 to a very great extent, in the cold weather. " 



There is not the least doubt that it is merely a summer migrant to 

 Lahore. Not a koel is to be seen in that place between the end of 

 October and the middle of March, but throughout the hot weather 

 it is exceedingly abundant. The young birds appear to remain on 

 for some time after the old birds. Inglis states that it is "abundant 

 in Darbhanga," but does not say whether or no it is more numerous 

 in the hot weather than in the cold. Osmaston states that the koel 

 although abundant in the Andamans and Narcondam (a small soli- 

 tary island situated in the Andaman sea in lat. 13° 26' i is only a cold- 

 weather visitor. It arrives in September and October and leaves in 

 April. Macdonald says that koels are " common during the cold 

 weather and noisy during the breeding season, March and April " in 

 the Myingyan district of Burma, about the latitude of Calcutta. 



Ward names this species as one of the birds of Kashmir and 

 Jammn, but does not say whether or no it is a migrant. 



