THE KOEL AND ITS ALLIES 307 



been reached it is finished off in a rapid 



downward scale, thus — Ku-ooo, ku-ooo 



ku- 000, kooo, kooo, kooo and so on. If this 

 note is mimicked the bird answers with 

 gusto, and our village boys often tease 

 it by so doing, with the result that it 

 becomes more insistent and vociferous. 

 Its second note is a series of shrill nn- 

 melodious kuk-kuk-kuk-kuk which is 

 generally to be heard at dawn. The 

 third is an ear-splitting shriek of terror, 

 uttered by both sexes, specially on the 

 wing when pursued by the crow. 



The Papiya has two distinct notes, one 

 of which is its name-call, which has earned 

 for it the name of ^'brain-fever bird". This 

 sounds like pa-pee-ha. This trisyllabic 

 cry is "repeated many times in as- 

 cending semitones until one begins to 

 think that the bird is going to burst". 

 The other call begins with one or two 

 of the trisyllabic utterances and then 

 passes on into a volley of single descen- 



