Birds of the Indian Hills 



Pekoe Bird, by which name the species is known 

 to many Europeans. 



Last, but not least of the common Himalayan 

 cuckoos, are the famous brain-fever birds, 

 whose crescendo brain-fever, brain- fever, 

 BRAIN-FEVER, which is shrieked at all 

 hours of the day and the night, has called forth 

 untold volumes of awful profanity from jaded 

 Europeans living in the plains, and has earned 

 the highest encomiums of Indians. 



There are two species of brain-fever bird that 

 disport themselves in the Himalayas. These 

 are known respectively as the large and the 

 common hawk-cuckoo (Hierococcyx sparveri- 

 oides and H. varius). I do not profess to 

 distinguish with certainty between the notes of 

 these two birds, but am under the impression 

 that the larger form is the one that makes 

 itself heard at Naini Tal and Mussoorie. 



The Indian koel (Eudynamis honor ata) is not 



to be numbered among the common birds of 



the Himalayas. Its noisy call kuil, kuil, kuil, 



which may be expressed by the words yorfre- 



ill, you 9 re-ill, who-are-you? who-are-you? is 



heard throughout the sub-Himalayan regions 



in the early summer, and I have heard it as 



high up as Raj pur below Mussoorie, but have 



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