CTJCULUS CANOEUS. 223 



species lias not been oftener met with in the island, particularly as on the other side of the Bay of Bengal it has 

 been found as far south as Timor, lat. 10° S. Layard obtained the first example in the old Botanical Gardens 

 at Kew, Colombo ; and Mr. Bligh the second, which he shot on the Harangolla Patnas, Kotmalie, on the 

 7th October, 1873. This was at an elevation of about 4000 feet, lower than which it is not likely that 

 the Cuckoo would reside in Ceylon during its stay. Layard's specimen was killed, of course, en passant to 

 the hills. 



Our English harbinger of spring can therefore only be looked upon as a mere straggler to Ceylon ; but 

 notwithstanding, as it is a bird which recalls home recollections to many of my readers who perhaps feel 

 themselves exiled to the beautiful island of Lanka, I feel constrained to say more concerning its distribution, 

 habits, and strange career as a nestling than the limits of this work on a local avifauna would otherwise 

 warrant. During the breeding-season the Cuckoo inhabits more or less the whole of the Asiatic continent 

 north of the Himalayas, extending its range as far north as the limit of forest-growth, considerably within the 

 Arctic circle, and extending westwards from Japan right across to the neighbouring continent of Europe, over 

 which it is entirely diffused, being of course, as regards the various districts in which it has been noticed in 

 both regions, locally common and locally scarce : to the south of the Himalayas many birds remain and perhaps 

 breed as low down as the latitude of Calcutta. Within its ordinary breeding-limit, however, it is to some parts 

 only a visitant ; Mr. H. Whitely records it as such to Hakodadi, in Japan. In China, says Swinhoe, it 

 " occurs in the mountains of the south in spring, extending northwards to Pekin. During its migration we 

 met with it on the plains." Mr. Blakiston notes it as common on Pujisan, one of the Japanese islands. 



In Eastern Turkestan, writes Dr. Scully, it arrives on the plains about the middle of April (this is from 

 the south of course), and leaves about the beginning of August. In Persia, Mr. Blanford says that it 

 abounds ; he heard its note frequently in the Baluchistan hills in February and March, and he is of opinion 

 that it breeds in the Persian highlands, for he met with it in May in the wooded hillsides and valleys of Fars. 

 To Palestine it is also a summer visitant from the south; Canon Tristram ('Ibis,' 1866, p. 285) did not 

 observe it before the 30th March ; it was generally spread over the country, and was particularly abundant in 

 the Jordan valley. As above remarked, it is spread over the whole of Europe to the extreme north. Messrs. 

 Alston and Harvie Brown record it as very abundant at Archangel; in Sweden and Norway it is likewise 

 common; and as regards the British Isles it travels to the extreme limit of the Shetlands, arriving in the south 

 at the end of April, and laying, according to Mr. G. Dawson Rowley's observations, as early as the 1st of May. 

 It does not appear to remain in Spain during the summer, merely passing through on its northward 

 migration from Africa : Mr. Saunders did not find it laying anywhere in the country. 



In North Africa it is a spring and autumn visitor, passing through on its way to the north from more 

 southerly latitudes. Captain Shelley has shot it as early as the 30th April; and Von Heuglin states that it 

 arrives from the south in March, and lingers on its way north until May, returning so soon again as August. 

 These must be, in all probability, birds that have bred in the south of Europe. In Lower Nubia, Professor 

 Hartmann heard it in May, and again in September and October. In Tangier it is common, arriving in 

 spring from the south. On the west coast it has been procured in Fantee by Governor Ussher, in Damara 

 Land, South-west Africa, by Mr. Andersson, and in Natal by Mr. Ayres. In South Africa, however, where it 

 winters, it is evidently by no means common, as there are comparatively few instances of its capture there ; 

 where, therefore, the number of birds that pass through North Africa spend the winter has yet to be deter- 

 mined, and will most likely prove to be the upland regions of the continent, or the country of the great lakes 

 so prominently brought before the world of late years by our great African travellers. 



In Asia, where we have been discussing its summer habitat, its winter quarters are well known. In 

 Bengal it is common, and thence is spread all over India to the extreme south, where it is rare. In the north- 

 west of the latter country it is a spring visitant, passing through, according to Captain Butler, in May, and 

 moving towards the hills ; after the breeding-season it returns again, and is very plentiful in September. 

 Neither Mr. Bourdillon nor Mr. Fairbank record it from the Travancore hills ; and the latter does not speak 

 of it in the Deccan, although Jerdon says that it remains two -or three months in the spring in Central India, 

 and that he heard its call at Goomsoor, Saugor, and Nagpoor in May and June. On the other side of 

 the bay it is evidently a mere straggler, occurring in Pegu and perhaps in the Malaccan Peninsula and 

 islands between there and Timor, which is its utmost limit to the south. 



