92 BULLETIN 17 6, ITlsriTED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



In Burma this cuckoo is commoner in the Euby Mines district and 

 m the Southern Shan States than anywhere else. T. R. Livesey, who 

 has had a wonderful experience with them in the latter country, in- 

 forms me that in these districts they frequent both the open decidu- 

 ous forests as well as the open country of scrub and grass land 

 around towns and villages, even depositing their eggs in the nests of 

 birds breeding in and close to the gardens of houses occupied by 

 Europeans or by Shans. 



After the breeding season this cuckoo may be found in almost any 

 kind of country that is fairly well wooded, while in the plains of 

 Bengal and Lower Assam it seems to have a special liking for mango 

 orchards and patches of jungles in tea plantations. 



Spring. — In Assam those individuals that have migrated into the 

 plains and lower hills the preceding autumn return to their breeding 

 quarters in the end of March or early April, their numbers increasing 

 rapidly up to the end of that month, when their mellow call may be 

 heard almost continually in every direction at all elevations between 

 3,500 and 6,500 feet. Exact dates of arrival are recorded nowhere 

 that I can trace, but I have eggs taken on April 14, odd eggs taken 

 in the third week in April, and many after the 25th of that month. 



In the Chin Hills, between Assam and the Ruby Mines district and 

 Shan States, most cuckoos commence breeding about the middle of 

 April, arriving in their breeding haunts nearly a month earlier. Here 

 they are common at about 4,000 feet upward and haunt much the 

 same kinds of country as they do in Assam, certainly breeding up to 

 7,000 feet, or a little over, as eggs have been taken on Mount Victoria 

 and the hills above Fort White. 



In the Shan States Mr. Livesey informs me that few if any birds 

 remain above 4,000 feet in winter, in the end of August and early 

 September the great majority moving into the lower hills and adjoin- 

 ing plains. The first birds returning to the higher hills put in an 

 appearance early in March and commence to lay the last of that 

 month, March 27 being the earliest date on which he has taken eggs 

 and July 1 the latest. 



The length of the breeding season is much more extended than is 

 that of the European cuckoo {C. c. canonis) or the central Asian 

 bird {C. c. telephonus) ^ doubtless owing to the same factors of cold, 

 food supply, etc., that compel the more northern birds of all families 

 to compress their breeding arrangements into a far shorter time than 

 that occupied by the southern birds, for whom temperature, food 

 supply, and other factors are more or less favorable almost through- 

 out the year. 



The individual cuckoo, however, is governed in her time of egg- 

 laying by the habits of the foster jDarent that she selects to bring up 



