VI 



CUCKOOS 



"Sure he's arrived, 



The tell-tale cuckoo ; spring's his confidant, 

 And he lets out her April purposes." 



Pippa passes. 



"The merry cuckoo, messenger of spring, 

 His trumpet shrill hath thrice already sounded." 



SPENSER. 



ONE can hardly imagine an Indian garden without 

 a large population of cuckoos without the ringing 

 notes of ko'ils, the crescendoes of " brain-fever birds " 

 and the hootings of " crow-pheasants," not to speak 

 of the shrill pipings of the pied Coccystes and the 

 melodious voices of plaintive and common cuckoos. 

 The koi'l l is the best known and most widely diffused 

 of all the commoner species, and the only one that 

 habitually ventures far into the interior of towns ; 

 for wherever crows elect to build, one may be sure 

 that ko'ils will accompany them in order to make 

 use of their nests. Sir Edwin Arnold writes of 

 their " nest-notes rich and clear " ; but whilst this 



1 The koil, Eudyna/mis honor ata, is a good deal larger than a common 

 cuckoo, but the uniform and intense black colour of the male birds seems 

 in some degree to act as a visual diminutive. 



