74 COMMON BIRDS OF AN INDIAN GARDEN 



ing an almost startling accentuation as they ring out 

 into the darkness. As they usually lay in the nests of 

 the common babblers the frequency with which they 

 are to be met with in any particular garden is to 

 some extent determined by the number of the latter 

 birds who are in the way of building in it. 



The only other cuckoos that are permanent 

 residents of gardens in Calcutta are the common 

 " crow-," or " griffs-pheasants," Centropus sinensis, 1 

 who, although not very often seen, constantly 

 announce their presence by deep-toned hootings 

 that resound from the thickets and shrubberies in 

 the mornings and evenings. It is strange that such 

 large and conspicuously marked birds should be so 

 invisible as they are, but, owing to their extremely 

 wary, furtive habits, and the way in which their tints 

 match those of the dead leaves of the dense coverts 

 in which they usually lurk, it is only at times of 

 year when the foliage is unusually thin that they can 

 often be detected. When they do happen to be 

 seen they certainly present nothing to suggest to 

 the uninitiated that they really are cuckoos, so much 

 so that even within my own experience two instances, 

 justifying their vulgar name of "griffs-pheasants," 

 have occurred. In one of these a friend of mine 

 came to me one morning in much excitement to 

 announce that he had seen a pheasant walking on 

 the lawn ; and in the second a young fellow, who 



, l They are considerably larger than koiils. 



