lo JUNGLE FOLK 



First and foremost among these is our familiar friend 

 the coucal, or crow-pheasant {Centropus sinensis), 

 known also as the lark-heeled cuckoo, because the 

 hindmost of its toes has a long straight claw, hke that 

 of the lark. This cuckoo is sometimes dubbed the 

 " Griff's pheasant," because the new arrival in India 

 frequently mistakes the bird for a pheasant, and there- 

 by becomes the laughing-stock of the *' Koi-Hais." 



It always seems to me that it is not quite fair to poke 

 fun at one who makes this mistake. A man cannot 

 be expected to know by instinct which birds are 

 pheasants and which are not. The coucal is nearly as 

 large as some species of pheasant, and rejoices in a tail 

 fully ten inches long ; moreover, the bird is usually 

 seen walking on the ground. Further, Dr. Blanford 

 states that crow-pheasants are regarded as a great 

 dehcacy by Indian Mohammedans, and by some Hindu 

 castes. I have never partaken of the flesh of the coucal, 

 and those Europeans who have done so do not seem 

 anxious to repeat the experiment. Its breast is smaller 

 than that of a dak bungalow murghi, for its wing 

 muscles are very small. As to its flavour, Col. Cunning- 

 ham informs us, in his volume Some Indian Friends and 

 Acquaintances, that " a young fellow, who had recently 

 arrived in the country, complained with good reason of 

 the evil flavour of a ' pheasant ' that one of his chums 

 had shot near a native village, and had, much to the 

 astonishment of the servants, brought home to be 

 cooked and partaken of as a game-bird." There is an 

 alHed species of crow-pheasant, which is still more like 

 a long-tailed game-bird, so much so that it is known 



