An Honest Cuckoo 



The eggs are white with a chalky surface, and 

 as three are usually laid, the parents must have a 

 great deal to do to satisfy the brood, for the young 

 are as ravenous as our young cuckoo, continually 

 calling for food with a curious choking, gulping 

 note repeated three times. The note of the old 

 birds is a sort of hoot. 



This bird is often proscribed in India as an 

 enemy to game, but even if it does destroy chicks 

 it ought to be spared in view of its great utility. 

 Every one in the East ought to have a warm 

 corner in his heart for a snake-killing creature, 

 and as rats are also part of the bird's prey — 

 at any rate it has been known to kill them in 

 captivity — it may be fairly held to pay for any 

 damage it does, since snakes and rats are no 

 better neighbours to young game birds than any 

 big bird of predatory tastes. Moreover, the in- 

 sectivorous habits of the species render its pre- 

 servation of importance, for in the East, at all 

 events, one must always strain a point in favour 

 of an insect-eating bird, considering the appal- 

 ling variety and prolificacy of insect life in those 

 regions. 



The most interesting point about the crow- 

 pheasant, in my opinion, is the curious way in 

 which it represents the magpie. This bird, 

 though found in the Indian hills, is absent in 

 the plains, and the tree-pie (Dendrocitta rtifa), 



r 59 



