THE BIRDS OF NORTH KANAKA. 51 



in the moonlight, and have only once sucoeeiled in shooting it. On 

 another occasion I could have killed one, but it was within sis yards, 

 and the shot would have blown it to pieces. I have twice come across 

 it in daylight, but on neither occasion had I a gun with me. 

 1100. Harpactbs fasciatus, Penn. 

 A permanent resident generally distributed over all the forest area 

 except the extreme eastern portion. It is common in the evergreens 

 at Karwar in the rains. I have taken numerous nests : the earliest 

 was iu March at Kutgul, but above Ghats the end of April and May 

 are the commonest months. The nest holes were all large openings and 

 generally in very rotten wood, and the heights varied from ten to 

 about twenty feet. The cock sits on the eggs as well as the hen, and 

 they are very shy at returning to a nest when any one is about, though 

 they keep in the neighbourhood. I remember one case at Supa when 

 1 had started a cock from some tree (I could not see which), I watched 

 him for over an hour, during which tim.e he mostly sat without mov- 

 ing; he then flew away. As I had seen nothing of the hen, I con- 

 sidered that there was no use waiting longer, and strolled on in the 

 direction he had come from. I noticed a broken branch on a tree 

 about nine feet from the ground, and as it was so low, I climbed up 

 and put my hand on the branch, which broke clean off the moment my 

 fingers touched it, and left three beautiful fresh eggs on the top of a 

 heap of rotted wood, which fortunately prevented their falling to the 

 ground. All the eggs I have found have been a rich cream colour. 

 llOi. CucuLus CANORUS, Linn. 

 The common cuckoo is a rare bird in Kanara. I have only twice 

 shot it ; both were in the Kumta taluka in November. I also once 

 heard its note at Nilkuud in February. 



1107. CucuLUS MiCROPTERUS, Gould. 

 This cuckoo is generally distributed in the forest portion of the 

 district from February to May, and is probably found at all seasons. 

 It is however a shy bird, and would generally be passed over were it 

 not for its clear four-noted metallic cry, one of the finest I know, and 

 always connected in my mind with the long solitary wait one frequent- 

 ly has hid when beating for big game. In the north of the Sirsi 

 taluka on the 4th April, 1894, I obtained an egg I consider to belong 

 to this bird. It was in the nest of a malacocercus, and is clearly a 



