THE OOLOGY OF INDIAN PARASITIC CUCKOOS. 6$7; 



Other birds shewed no dislike to their company and had evidently no 

 knowledge of their evil nesting habits. 



This cuckoo has a comparatively large powerful foot, hence its acti- 

 vity when in trees. 



Genus Surniculus (Lesson.) 



India contains one species of this curious genus which can be mistaken 

 for no other cuckoo found within our limits, though it may be; and 

 almost certainly is, frequently mistaken for Dicrurus ater (the Black 

 Drongo). It is black, with the exception of a few white spots and patches 

 which are hardly noticeable unless the bird is extremely close. It has a 

 long forked tail, like the drongo, and imitates that bird also in its flight. 



Surniculus lugubris. (Horsf.) 

 The Drongo Cuckoo. 



Surniculus dicruroides. Jerdon, B. of I., I, p. 336. 



Surniculus lugubris. Hume and Dav., S. F., VI, pp. 159, 502 ; 

 Ball, ibid., VII, p. 207 ; Hume, Cat. No. 210 ; id., S. F., IX, p. 248 , 

 XI, p. 75 ; Legge, B. of Ceylon, p. 243 ; Barnes, B. of Bom., p. 128 . 

 Oates, B. of Burm, II, p. 112 ; Shelly, Cat. B. M., XIX, p. 227 ) 

 Blanford, Fauna of B. I., Ill, p. 223 ; Nehrkorn, Cat. Eier., p. 170 ; 

 Reid, Cat. Eggs B. M., Ill, p. 104. 



There is nothing absolutely authentic on record about this Cuckoo's 

 eggs beyond the fact that Davidson saw some King-Crows feeding a 

 young one, and Mr. T. R. Bell also informs me that he has noticed one 

 being fed by Dicrurus ater, the Black King-Crow. He has also 

 found eggs iu King-Crow's nests which he thinks must belong to this 

 Cuckoo, though he has no certain proof that they are so. He describes 

 the eggs as " the same size as those of Dicrurus ater, in whose nests 

 they were found, and are similar : the-shape is also slightly abnormal, 

 tending to both ends being equally obtuse." 



An egg sent me by Col. Rattray to examine agrees well, as far as I 

 can tell, with Mr. Bell's eggs. It is a pale cream in ground colour, with 

 spots and blotches of Indian red and dark red-grey or purple. 

 There are also a few large secondary marks, consisting of smears of very 

 pale yellow-brown. The markings are mostly confined to the larger 

 end, but form no ring or cap there. The texture is rather close, and the 

 surface is hard and smooth with a fine gloss : the texture is rather 

 coarser than that of the egg of the Common Cuckoo, and the shape 



