THE CUCKOOS. 147 
yellowish-grey colour above, splashed with black on the 
crown, and with fine black streaks on the back. There is 
a broken buff collar, and black and buff markings on the 
shoulders. Below the plumage is buff with indistinct 
brown bars, and a white spot on the throat. There are 
also white spots on the first four pinion-quills, and the 
outer two pairs of tail-feathers are tipped with white. 
The shanks are completely bare to the hock, whereas 
in most of our Nightjars they are more or less feathered. 
The large eyes are dark, as is usually the case with these 
birds. 
This Nightjar inhabits India, Ceylon, and Burma as 
far south as Moulmein, but it avoids high hills and large 
forests, keeping to the plains in cultivation and low jungle 
and even entering gardens. It is often known as the Ice- 
bird, from its note, which resembles the sound made by a 
stone flung upon ice and rebounding from it. 
Its two eggs may be found, according to locality, at any 
time between April and September; they are about an 
inch long, faintly spotted with brown and purple on a 
pinkish-stone or salmon-coloured ground. 
| THE CUCKOOS. 
Cuckoos are found all over the world, but are not nu- 
merous in species except in warm regions. They have 
slightly curved bills of moderate size, with conspicuous 
nostrils set low down and near the edge of the upper chap, 
and their toes are in two pairs, the outer front toe being 
turned backwards, as in Woodpeckers and Barbets. 
Tree-Cuckoos, which in the East at all events, lay their 
