THE OOLOGY OF INDIAN PARASITIC CUCKOOS. 367 



Mr. E. H. Aitken remarks that the yolk in this bird's egg is more 

 highly colored than it is in that of C. jacobinus. 



The illustrations of the eggs of H. varius and C. Jacob inns in the B. 

 Museum Catalogue of Eggs are very good, but the measurement of the 

 former are possibly wrongly depicted, as the painting measures 1*2" by 

 •76". 



I do not think that C. jacobinus' eggs can be discriminated with any 

 certainty from those of Hierococcyx varius, though the latter average 

 larger and perhaps average lighter. 



Nehrkorn in his catalogue of the eggs in his collection describes the 

 egg as being " dark blue-green flecked with fine specks of ruddy- brown 

 at the larger end." This egg was taken from the nest of Crateropus 

 canorus (The Jungle Babbler) with the eggs of the foster parents. 



The Common Hawk-Cuckoo is found all over India and Ceylon, being 

 a resident, though perhaps locally migrating, throughout its range. It 

 is found in Cacbar, but does not seem to extend up the Brahmaputra 

 valley, where sparverioides is exceedingly common. 



This is the true " Brain-fever" bird, beloved of all sick Europeans in 

 India, though the Koel and the Large Hawk-Cuckoo are often so called 

 locally, especially where the Common Hawk-Cuckoo is absent. 



Its note- is the same pi-pee-ah, pi-pee-ah as that of sparverioides, but 

 it is even more shrill and penetrating, and the bird itself even more 

 persistent. Night or day seems much the same to it, and when the 

 nights are very dark it awakes with the dawn and has double the energy 

 to expend on destroying the rest of every one within hearing. 



Hierococcyx nisicolor. (Hodgson.) 

 Hodgson's Hawk- Cuckoo. 



Hierococcyx nisicolor, Jerdon, B. of I., I., p. 330 ; III, p. 871 (Sup.) ; 

 Hume, S. F. V., pp. 96, 347 : id. ibid. XI, p. 72 ; id. Cat. No. 206; Hume 

 and Davis, S. F. VI, p. 157 ; Oates, B. of Burm., II, p. 109 ; id. Nests 

 and Eggs, 2nd ed., II., p. 383 ; Blanford, Fauna B. I., III., p. 214 ; 

 Stuart Baker, Jour. B. N. H. S., X., p. 366. 



Hierococcyx fugax, Shelly, Cat, B. M., XIX, p. 236, partem. 



The only absolutely authentic egg of this species taken as yet is the one 

 which Mandelli took from the oviduct of a female on the 5th June. 

 This egg is described in " Nest and Eggs " as " a broad oval, scarcely 

 at all -pointed towards the small end and a little obtuse at the large end." 



