366 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOVIETY, Vol.X. 



(427) HiEROCOCCYX VAEius. — The Common Hawk-Cackoo. 

 Hume, No. 205 ; Blanford, No. 1109. 



I have but one specimen of this bird, a very young male, with 

 heavy, broad, rufous striations to the ivliole of the lower plumage. 

 Besides this I have seen four or five others only, and, of these, 

 one was shot, so the collector informed me, as it flew off' a nest. 

 This nest is, I think, that of a fly-catcher of sorts, but there were 

 no eggs in it other than the one which was said to be the egg of 

 the cuckoo. 



In colour it is a clear, bright, but not very pale blue, and is in shape 

 a broad almost perfect oval. It measures 1"07"X*82". 



(42 S) HiEROCOCCYX NisicoLOR. — Hodgson's Hawk-Cuckoo. 



Eitme, No. 206. {H. fugax, B. M, Cat., vol. xix, p. 236). 



Blanford, No. 1110. 



I have seen several specimens of this hawk-cuckoo, and in 1891 

 obtained an egg which really would seem to belong to it although so 

 utterly different from what would be expected. 



I was hunting for the nest of a pair of Orthotomus coronatus at the 

 time, when a cuckoo flew from out of a tuft of grass about twenty 

 feet from me. I, of course, shot her, and before even picking her up 

 went to the tuft whence she flew and there found a nest of Stachyri- 

 dopsis containing two of its proper eggs and a third, much larger 

 than the two others put together. I then went for the cuckoo, which 

 1 found to be H. nisicolor. 



The egg is a pale bright olive-brown, , with the olive tinge very 

 strongj and in shapfe is a very perfect long oval. There is the faintest 

 possible sign of a cap of a darker hue at the extremity of the larger 

 end. This egg is •96"X'63". A second egg was got by a European 

 taxidermist of mine who took it from the nest of a small Niltava. 

 He informed me that he had distinctly seen the bird get oif the nest, 

 and that he then shot it. 



The egg is very like the one just described, but is a darker brown, 

 less olive, and measures only •87"x*(34". 



I must add, however, that this same taxidermist was quite the most 

 fluent liar I have ever met, and that though his story is probable, and 

 it is true that he did bring home this egg and a bird of this species on 



