% THE BIRDS OF CALCUTTA. 



including the overture preceding the triple note, is, " O 

 k>r' ! lor' ! how very hot it's getting I feel it, I feel it, 5 ' 

 &c., &c., &c. The brain-fever bird in youth is nurtured 

 by the " seven sisters," and in connection with his resem- 

 blance to the shikra it may be noted that one observer 

 states that the whole sisterhood make themselves scarce 

 when Hierococcyx appears on the scene, and thus give her 

 a fair field for planting her oval imposition on them. On 

 the other hand, as has been stated in the chapter dealing 

 with those birds, the shabby seven have been known to 

 show a bold front to the real enemy, and moreover the 

 young brain-fever bird is as similar to a young hawk as 

 its parent is to an old one ; so that general rather than 

 special deception may be the object of this remark- 

 able resemblance, which occurs to a certain extent in 

 many parasitic cuckoos, including the familiar bird at home 

 (Cuculus canorus). This also occurs here, and may be 

 heard any spring day at Darjeeling, together with a larger 

 mountaineering relative of the brain-fever bird (Hierococ- 

 cyx sparverioides). India, indeed, rejoices in a number of 

 cuckoos, both of the sort " as doesn't lay 'is own eggs 

 'isself," and of the more honest section who behave in 

 domestic matters like any ordinary bird. About Calcutta 

 one may occasionally meet, of the former kind, the hand- 

 some black and white Crested Cuckoo (Coccystes jacobinus) 

 which the natives mil call a bulbul, and of the latter, the 

 awkward looking Crow-pheasant (Centropus sinensis) with 

 its black body and tan wings, which certainly does at first 

 sight recall the two birds whose name it bears rather than 

 the ordinary members of its real family. The Crow- 



