HIMALAYAl^ CUCKOO 89 



Colors of soft parts. — Iris yellow or "grey with brown inner circle" 

 (La Tonclie) ; bill dark horny green, the base of the upper, and most 

 of the lower, mandible yellowish horny, the gape still more yellow; 

 legs and feet wax-yellow to rather bright yellow. 



Food. — This also is the same in character as that of Cuculus 

 canorus, but C. optatu.s also devours more hard-bodied insects such 

 as Cicadae and many small and some quite large beetles, while it 

 feeds rather more exclusively on food obtained near the tops of high 

 trees. I have never seen it feeding on the ground, nor have I noticed 

 it in scrub or bushes except when it was probably hunting for a nest 

 in which to deposit its egg. 



Behavior. — I do not think that this bird could be distinguished 

 from Cuculus canornis.^ except by its voice, by any field naturalist 

 until the bird was actually in his hand. In flight, perching position, 

 and general action I have been able to discern no difference of any 

 kind between the two birds unless it is that when the two were seen 

 together optatus looks a smaller, slighter bird than canorus and may 

 fly a trifle faster with quicker wing beats. 



Both sexes have the habit, as canorus has, of sitting, almost motion- 

 less, for a very long time in one position, possibly in the case of the 

 female while she is watching certain birds and waiting for them 

 to give away the site of their nest, or when she is waiting for the 

 precise moment at which to fly down and place her Qgg in the nest 

 of the foster parent selected to receive it. 



Voice. — The call of the male consists of four notes, two rapid, then 

 a pause, and then two more, all of the same cadence, sounding like 

 hoo-hoo hoo-hoo. When one is close to the bird a fifth note can be 

 heard preceding these, much higher pitched and far less resounding 

 so that at a little distance only the four notes are heard. The call 

 is a typical cuckoo note, and hearing it one would expect to find that 

 a cuckoo had uttered it. There is also a sweet trilling note that is 

 rarely heard, and I cannot say whether it is uttered by one sex or 

 both, but I suspect it to correspond to the bubbling note uttered by 

 the female canorus. Although occasionally this cuckoo calls on 

 moonlight nights it does not do so with anything like the persever- 

 ance of the common cuckoo, nor is it so incessantly vocal during the 

 day. 



En^emies. — The same as those of the common cuckoo, but the young 

 do not suffer so much from exposure by falling out of nests too small 

 or too weak to hold them. In the case, how-ever, of eggs laid in holes 

 occupied by the nests of the crowned willow warbler the young birds 

 have to vacate them at a very early stage or they would be unable to 

 do so when full grown and would be incarcerated in them for life. 

 As these cuckoos select ground nests so largely in which to deposit 



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