Mr. R. Svviuhoe on the Omitholocfi/ of Hainan. 231 



34. EuDYNAMis MALAYANA, Cab. & Heine. 



On Naochow island (2nd February) I saw a couple of Koels 

 only, and did not shoot either. They seemed unsettled visitors. 

 In all the cultivated parts of Hainan where bamboos grew and 

 trees abounded, alike in town and country, in fact where Crows 

 and Mynahs found a home among men, the Koel was abundant. 

 In the jungles of the south they did not show themselves; but 

 on the undulating land of the west they were as common as in 

 the north and east. They always appeared restless throughout 

 February and March, chattering and flying in an agitated 

 manner from tree to tree, uttering their dreadfully noisy notes 

 from morning to night, and sometimes for the greater part of 

 the night, especially when there was moonhght. My previous 

 acquaintance with the Koel I have already described in ' The 

 Ibis' (1861, p. 46). It was in the city of Canton, in the 

 beginning of May 1860, when this bird had arrived and was in 

 full note and engaged in courting. Higher up the China coast 

 I have only observed it as a rare and occasional straggler. On 

 first meeting the bird at Hainan, I was naturally under the im- 

 pression that it was on its passage to its breeding-quarters in 

 the south of China ; but I soon found that at this early time of 

 year (February) each bird was in the height of amatory excite- 

 ment. I then began to think that it was possible that the Koel, 

 not being confined to any locality by the cares of nidification, v/as 

 paying his gallant attentions to the fair of his species that he 

 found on the northward journey, who followed as soon as they 

 got some kind Crow or Mynah to adopt the " little stranger," 

 to continue the same game with fresh sweethearts in their 

 summer home. But fortunately, bad as are the morals of the 

 Cuckoo-group in their promiscuous love, I found my surmises 

 as to this wholesale abandonment of their children was incorrect. 

 For, judging by a comparison of their skins, the Hainan Koel is 

 of a different race from the Koel that visits Canton ; and on re- 

 flection I cannot help thinking that its loud call- note is not 

 quite the same. 



The Canton Koel looks very much like the race that frequents 

 Southern India and Ceylon, while the Hainan Koel, by its larger 

 bill and larger wings, agrees with the E. malayana, Cab. & Heine, 



