68 COMMON BIRDS OF AN INDIAN GARDEN 



either a male or a female koil is fleeing before the 

 just wrath of infuriated crows. It is apparently 

 the only loud call that the females are able to 

 produce, and in their case is not invariably an index 

 to alarm, for I have heard a caged hen utter it 

 in response to the normal dawn-cry of a male, and 

 when she was quite free from any cause for anxiety. 

 Whilst uttering the name- cry the male ko'il sits 

 well down in a slouching attitude, characteristically 

 cuculine, throws up his head, opens his beak widely, 

 puffs out his throat, and dispreads the feathers of 

 his tail. 



The number of koils haunting any particular 

 garden is mainly determined by the nature of the 

 trees that it contains and the number of crows nest- 

 ing in them. Their diet consists mainly of fruits and 

 buds, and though their taste is very catholic, there are 

 certain trees affording supplies that they specially 

 esteem. Among fruits that appear to be most 

 popular are those of the wild date-palm, Phoenix syl- 

 vestris ; the berries of various species of Livistona ; 

 the receptacles of the common banyan, of Ficus nitida 

 and F. comosa ; and the red-coated seeds of Amoora 

 rohituka ; and wherever a number of such trees are 

 present koils are sure to be in attendance when the 

 fruits are ripening. I cannot forget the consequences 

 attending an abundant crop of fruit on some 

 Livistonas which had been allowed to grow up 

 immediately below a verandah in which I used to 



