Ornithological and Other Oddities 



brain-fever bird {Hierococcyx varius) ; its note 

 resembling the word " brain-fever," repeated 

 time after time in a continually higher key. 



Now the brain-fever bird is the most wonderful 

 feather-copy imaginable of the Indian sparrow- 

 hawk or shikra (Astur badius). All the mark- 

 ings of the hawk are reproduced in the cuckoo, 

 which is also of about the same size, and of 

 similar proportions in the matter of tail and wing ; 

 and both hawk and cuckoo having a first plumage 

 quite different from the one they assume when 

 adult, the resemblance extends to that Joo. 

 Moreover, their flight is so much the same that 

 unless one is near enough to see the beak, or 

 can watch the bird settle and note the difference 

 between the horizontal pose of the cuckoo and 

 the erect bearing of the hawk, it is impossible 

 to tell them apart on a casual view. 



The hawk - cuckoo is parasitic upon the 

 babblers, and it has been observed that when 

 it appears these birds absent themselves as 

 speedily as possible, so that it has every chance 

 of depositing its egg, which is blue like theirs, 

 in security. Moreover, like the drongo-cuckoo, 

 it no doubt profits in a general way by resemb- 

 ling a bird much stronger than itself. 



Dr. A. R. Wallace draws attention to the fact 

 that one of the large ground-cuckoos of the East 

 {Carpococcyx radiatus) bears a resemblance to a 



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