INDIAN CUCKOOS 



IN the matter of cuckoos India can give points to 

 the British Isles. The good folk at home see 

 only one species of cuckoo, and that spends less 

 than half its time on the British shores ; we in 

 India, on the other hand, can boast of an avifauna 

 in which the sub-family cuculince is represented by no 

 fewer than thirty species. 



Lest the above statement should excite the righteous 

 indignation of British ornithologists, let me hasten to 

 say that it is not strictly true, that it requires a little 

 modification. 



Species of cuckoo, other than the common or garden 

 Cuculus canorus, have been seen in England outside 

 the Zoological Gardens. Three bold species have, at 

 divers times, visited the shores of Albion, and warm 

 was the reception each received. 



Thanatology is a science carried to perfection in the 

 Homeland. So-called naturalists shoot, at sight, every 

 strange bird. In 1871 an American Black-Billed 

 Cuckoo was seen at Belfast and shot. On five different 

 occasions the Yellow-Billed Cuckoo — the American 

 Rain-bird — has visited our shores only to be put to 

 death. A similar fate overtook the two Great Spotted 



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