Ornithological and Other Oddities 



found in the Himalayas in the nests of Indian 

 birds, these have been always of European types, 

 if not identical with European species — robins, 

 chats, and titlarks — while it mostly leaves the 

 Oriental babblers and bulbuls alone. It is this 

 preference for the more widely ranging groups 

 of small birds, which populate Europe as well 

 as the temperate elevations of the great Indian 

 mountain-chain, that has probably given Cuculus 

 canorus its power to extend its range into a 

 region where its kindred are, as a rule, unknown, 

 for it is significant that the only other truly 

 European cuckoo, the large crested species 

 {Coccystes glandarius), is also a dependent on 

 a widely ranging group, in this case the crow 

 tribe. That the koel has not been able to 

 follow these westward also is no doubt attribut- 

 able to its fruit-eating habits. Fifty years of 

 Europe may be better than a cycle of Cathay 

 for mankind, but such a period would be quite 

 long enough for the extinction of any large fruit- 

 eating bird, if we may judge from the absence 

 of such in our part of the world. 



4° 



