cucuLus. 379 



Order CUCULI*. 



Family CUCULTD^, 

 Subfamily CUCULINiE. 



Cuculus canorus, Linn. The European Cuckoo. 



CucLilus canorus, Linn., Jerd. B. Incl. i, p. 322 ; Hume, Rough Draft 

 N. Sf E. no. 199. 



The Common Cuckoo breeds with us, so far as I know, only in 

 the Himalayas, though ]Mr. ¥. R. Blewitt is of opinion that it 

 must breed occasionally in the hilly forest-tracts of the Central 

 Provinces, as he has met with it there during every month of the 

 year. 



It lays during the latter half of May and the first half of June, 

 selecting the nests of Pipits (Oreocorys sylvaaus and Anthun 

 jerdoni), Stonechats (Pratincola maura, 0. ferrea, and P. caprata), 

 Cop>syclms saularis, and doubtless many other species. 



The late Captain Cock wrote to me that this species is " very 

 common at Dhurmsala during May ; it usually makes its appearance 

 in April, and, I fancy, as soon as it has finished laying departs. The 

 nest of Pratincola caprata is the one that is generally selected to 

 lay the egg in, although on one occasion I found a young one in a 

 nest of a Malacocercus. I have taken four eggs at diffei-ent times 

 from the nests of P. caprata. I was for a long time uncertain 

 what Cuckoo the eggs belonged to, till I found a young Cuckoo and 

 three addled eggs belonging to P. caprata in the same nest, and I 

 watched the old cock and hen Pratincola feeding the young one, 

 which was an undoubted G. canorus. It is remarkable that the 

 nest of P. caprata should be selected, as it generally builds on a 

 bank or under a stone, always on the ground ; and although some 

 eggs of C. canorus are somewhat like some of P. caprata, yet there 

 is a great difference in the size, and one would think that the 

 female Cuckoo would have some difficulty in getting into the small 

 hole in which the nest is generally placed. But the Malacocerci 

 are not common up here at all, and I could not be quite sure that 

 the young Cuckoo I found in the Malacocercus^ nest was C. canorus, 

 though it most probably was. I believe the Malacocerci usually 



* I am indebted to Captain G. E. Shelley, who is now writing a Oataloguo 

 of tlie Cuculi in the British Museum, for the correct names of some of the 

 Cuckoos. 



