BEYOND THE SUDD 



287 



to sketch a couple of elephants, I ran into a colony of 

 these purple-crowned coucals most reclusive birds ; yet 

 so fearless of man that, skulking in that dense covert, 

 when in sight at all, they were too near to shoot. While 

 trying to sketch one, distant 6 yards, suddenly it dived 

 under a tangle of elephant-smashed canes and lay sidelong 

 on the ground, peering upwards in terror. A kite was 

 passing over. Bird-instinct was doubly at fault. That 

 coucal feared not man 

 (with a gun), and also 

 clearly failed to discrim- 

 inate between Milvus 

 which is harmless, and 

 Circus which is pre- 

 eminently dangerous. 



The note of both 

 species of coucal is strik- 

 ing among bird - elo- 

 quences. So far as 

 sounds can be rendered 

 in print, it is a repetition 

 of " pop-pop-pop, "louder 

 at first and increasing 

 pari passu alike in 

 rapidity of utterance 

 and in descending chro- 

 matic cadence. Its 



highest development is reached by the white-browed coucal, 

 a serenade which everyone with ears must have suffered 

 the livelong night at Mombasa. There, this coucal is 

 called the "brain -fever bird," alias the "water-bottle 

 bird," its note not inaptly comparing with the sound of 

 water gurgling out of an inverted bottle. The sketches 

 of the bird in the act of "bubbling" and that of the 

 kite-affrighted coucal* are drawn from life. 



The predatory tendencies of the coucal are curious in 

 a bird of the cuckoo class. Not only will it pounce upon 



BLACK-SHOULDERED KITE 



(_Elanus caruleus Immature). 



Shot at Mongalla. 



