cucuLiN^. 337 



This remarkable Cuckoo, clad so completely In the guise of 

 the Common King-crow {Dicrurus macrocercus), is found, though 

 sparingly, throughout India. I have procured it on the Malabar 

 coast, the Wynaad, in Central India, and at Darjeeling. It has 

 been found in other parts of the Himalayas, also in Ceylon, where 

 it is said not to be rare, and in Tenasserim and Burmah. Does this 

 Cuckoo select the nest of the Drongo in which to deposit her 

 eggs ? If so, the foster-parents would hardly be undeceived even 

 when the bird had arrived at maturity. One day, in Upper Burmah, 

 I saw a King-crow pursuing what at first I believed to be anotlier 

 of his own species ; but a peculiar call that the pursued bird was 

 uttering, and some white in its plumage, which I observed as It 

 passed close to nie, led me to suppose that it was a Drongo-cuckoo, 

 which had perhaps been detected (this being the breeding season) 

 about the nest of the Dicrurus. Mr. Blyth relates that he 

 obtained a pure white egg in the same nest with four eggs of D. 

 macrocercus, and which, he remarks, may have been that of the 

 D r ongo- cu ck o o . 



I am io-norant of the note of this Cuckoo, but It Is probably 

 similar in character to that of Fobjpliasla ; for Horsfield named the 

 Malayan race from its plaintive call. I once or twice, in the valley 

 of the llungnoo, near Darjeeling, heard what I considered to be the 

 call of P. nif/rn; but I never procured that bird in Sikhim, and 

 the call may have been that of S. dicruroides. 



A second species of this genus exists in the C. h(f/uhris of 

 Horsfield ; which, indeed, approaches our bird vt ry closely, and is 

 doubtfully distinct, according to Strickland ; but it appears to be 

 always a smaller race, and with the tail less distinctly forked 

 than in our Indian bird. 



Gen. ClIRYOSCOCCYX, Bole. 



Syn. Chalcites, Lesson. 



Char. — Bill as in Cuculus, but a little more depressed at tlie 

 base, and quite entire at tip ; wings pointed ; 2nd quill longer than 

 the 4th ; 3rd nearly as long ; the featlicrs of the rump and 

 upper tail-coverts, soft ; and tarsi very short and mui'h phnnod. 



2 u 



