80 COMMON BIRDS OF AN INDIAN GARDEN 



is uncertain, but there can be no question that many 

 kinds of birds regard them with great suspicion. 

 A pair of bulbuls who had nested in a shrub of 

 Diospyros in my garden would not hear of any 

 crested cuckoos roosting in it, and crows and mynas 

 may often be seen furiously pursuing them. The 

 lovely Goccystes coromandus l does not occur nearly 

 so frequently in the neighbourhood of Calcutta as 

 the previous species does, but isolated specimens make 

 their appearence at almost every time of year. 

 They are wonderfully beautiful birds, and have 

 extremely pretty ways. The rich chestnut and 

 black of their plumage gives them a certain likeness 

 to male Paradise-flycatchers in intermediate feather- 

 ing. When seen at a distance whilst at rest, they 

 may be mistaken for diminutive " crow-pheasants," 

 but when on the wing their rapid flitting progress 

 serves at once to distinguish them. It is seemingly 

 unknown in what nests they lay in this region, but 

 during their visits they certainly must sometimes 

 want accommodation for eggs, as one that was caught 

 in the beginning of April deposited a curiously blunt 

 pale blue finely speckled egg almost immediately 

 after being caged. 



The common Indian cuckoo, Cuculus micropterus, 

 although, owing to its constant preference for dense 

 cover, rarely seen, may very often be heard uttering 

 the peculiar call which is so accurately rendered by 



1 It is a much larger bird than C. jacdbinus. 



