THE OOLOGY OF INDIAN PARASITIC CUCKOOS. 689 



in any way like Mr. Bell's or Col. Rattray's eggs, either in shape, colour 

 or texture, and one type must, I am sure, be wrong. It measures "75" 

 by "57", and was taken from the nest of Henicurus leschenaulti in Java, 

 on the 14th June, 1889. 



This cuckoo is distributed throughout Ceylon, Southern, Central and 

 Eastern India : it extends as far West at least as Nepal and probably 

 much further. Mr. Bell tells me that it is common below the Ghats in 

 Kanara, and wherever observers have gone who have known the bird and 

 its habits and calls, it has been reported as more or less common. It is 

 so in Ceylon, Southern India, Eastern Bengal and Assam at all events, 

 and most probably is so also in the intervening countries, but so 

 close is its resemblance to the Common Black-Drongo that it escapes 

 observation. 



It extends through Burma to Borneo and Java and the Malay 

 Peninsula. 



Its flight is varied, sometimes dipping, much as it is with the King- 

 Crows, at others quick and direct. Its call is a most human whistle of 

 six notes running up in scale, and this it gives frequent utterance to both 

 by day and on moonlight nights. I have also heard one utter a double 

 plaintive note like whee-ivhip, much like a call indulged in by Dicrurus 

 ater in the breeding season. Indeed, had I not been standing close 

 under the cuckoo as it was in the act of calling, 1 should have thought it 

 was the Drongo. 



Genus Coccystes (Gloger). 



The two fine species of cuckoo which form this genus may be 

 at once distinguished from all others by the crest, the central feathers of 

 which are a considerable length. The tail also is long in proportion and 

 the rectrices very wide. The plumage is rather lax, and the bird appears 

 much larger in life than when made into a skin. ' 



Key to Species. 



Wings dark-brown with a white band jacolinus. 



Wings bright chestnut and black coromanclus. 



CoCCYSTES JAOOBINUS. (Bodd.) 

 The Pied Crested Cuckoo. 

 Coccystes melanoleucus. Jerdon, B. of I., I, p. 389. . 

 Coccystes jacobinus. Hume, S. F., I, p. 173 ; XI, p. 76; id., Cat., 

 No. 212; Butler, S. F., V, p. 327 ; ibid., VII, p.- 181? Davis, and 



