RESPECTABLE CUCKOOS ii 



to zoologists as Centvopus phasianus. Here, then, we 

 have examples of cuckoos which resemble other species 

 and suffer in consequence. What have those naturalists 

 who declare that mimicry is due to natural selection to 

 say to this ? 



The crow-pheasant is an easy bird to identify. The 

 wings are chestnut in colour, while all the remainder 

 of the plumage is black with a green or purple gloss. 



But for the fact that the brown wings do not match 

 well with the rest of the plumage, I should call the 

 coucal a handsome bird. This, however, is not 

 " Eha's " view. 



The crow-pheasant is widely distributed in India, 

 being found in gardens, in cultivated fields, and in the 

 jungle. All the bird demands is a thicket or hedgerow 

 in which it can take cover when disturbed. It does not 

 wander far from shelter, for it is a poor flier. Its diet 

 is made up chiefly of insects, but not infrequently it 

 captures larger quarry in the shape of scorpions, Hzards, 

 small snakes, and the hke dehcacies. Probably fresh- 

 water mollusca and Crustacea do not come amiss to 

 the bird, for on occasions I have seen it wading in a 

 nearly dried-up pond. It certainly picks much of its 

 food from off the ground, but, as it is often seen in 

 trees, and is able to hop from branch to branch with 

 considerable address, I am inclined to think that it 

 sometimes feeds on the caterpillars and other creeping 

 things that lurk on the under surface of leaves. I have 

 never actually observed it pick anything off a leaf, 

 for the coucal is of a retiring disposition. Like some 

 pubhc personages, it declines to be interviewed. 



