82 A FIRST LIST OK THTC 



It is generally met with in pairs, but live or six may some- 

 times be seen tog-ether. It appears to feed by preference on the 

 ground, or on very low bushes." Captain Feilden says : " I 

 rather fancy this bird lays two eggs in the same nest, as I have 

 seen a pair of nestlings seated on the same branch. I have 

 often seen this bird hawking moths, just as a Drongo might 

 have done." 



213.— Coccystes coromandus, Lin. 



The Pegu specimens are absolutely identical with those from 

 different parts of India, from the extreme south to the Hima- 

 layas. 



Mr. Oates says : " This species, though widely distributed, is not 

 common. A male I shot measured: Length, 15*6; expanse, 1 9; 

 tail, from vent, 9*8; wing, 6*45; bill, from gape, 1*3 ; tarsus, 

 T09. The bill was black, the inside of mouth, rufous fleshy; 

 The iris, hazel ; the eyelids, dusky plumbeous ; feet, clear plum- 

 beous ; claws, bluish horny." 



Captain Feilden remarks : " This bird is the commonest 

 Cuckoo at Thayetmyo ; in the thicker parts of the jungle every 

 bamboo-filled valley contains one or more pairs. They arrive in 

 the beginning of the rains, and the young birds do not leave till 

 October. They lay in the nest of the Quaker Thrushes I be- 

 lieve, as I have frequently shot the young bird from the middle 

 of a brood of young Quaker Thrushes, and as far as I could see 

 from the thickness of the jungle, the old thrushes were feeding the 

 young Cuckoo. An egg taken from the nest of a Quaker Thrush 

 that I believe to have belonged to this bird, was very round and a 

 pale blue. I believe that this bird keeps some kind of watch 

 over its eggs, as a pair have sometimes seated themselves near me 

 uttering a harsh, grating, whistling scream very unlike their usual 

 Magpie-like chatter, and I afterwards found a young Cuckoo in 

 company with a flock of Thrushes that were constantly to be 

 found in that bamboo clump." 



214 bis, — Eudynamis malayana, Cab. 



The Pegu bird is the larger, and much more powerful billed 

 race which Lord Walden identifies with malayana of Cabanis. 

 This is the same bird we met with throughout the Andamans 

 and Nicobars ; and in treating of the Avi-f auna of these islands, I 

 have sufficiently discussed this species; {vide Stray Feathers, 

 1874, p. 192). 



Mr. Oates remarks : " The Malayan Coel is very common at 

 certain seasons. Its cry is heard only from the beginning of 

 March to the middle of May, and at this time it is extremely 

 abundant ; but from June to February, I have never seen or shot 



