262 CENTEOPUS EUFIPENNIS. 



shy, walking' about the native compounds sometimes close to houses, and exhibiting no concern with regard to 

 the inmates. It may be that it finds its food scarcer here in the dry season than in the less parched-up 

 districts in the south. It walks with an even and stately gait, or proceeds with long hops, and, when winged 

 and pursued, runs with great speed through the jungle, and is exceedingly difficult to capture unless stopped 

 with a second shot. Some of its habits are very curious ; and Layard remarks with truth, " On being alarmed 

 it scrambles rapidly to the summit of the tree in perfect silence, and glides away in a contrary direction to that 

 whence the cause of its terror sprung." It resorts often to a favourite tree to roost, probably a shady " Jack," 

 or, better still, an Areea-palm, of which it is very fond, and which generally stand in the vicinity of native 

 houses. Into these it flics late in the evening, when it can take refuge in them unobserved, and then hides 

 itself in the thickest part of the foliage. At daybreak the following morning its deep notes are heard issuing 

 from the thick foliage and answered by the bird's mate, who is in another tree close at hand ; but there is not 

 ,1 sign of cither to be seen : this conversation goes on at intervals, and I have known it sometimes to last for 

 twenty minutes before either of the Coucals stirs from the spot in which it has passed the night : when the 

 time has come for a move, they hop out from their night's quarters, and fly away sometimes in opposite 

 directions, and are seldom seen in close company during the day. 



There is perhaps no bird-note in Ceylon so well known, nor one which strikes the new arrival from Europe 

 with such astonishment, as the wonderful sound which this Cuckoo issues from its capacious throat. It is heard 

 far and wide for miles on a still evening, and is so deep and weird-like that it is difficult to imagine it is produced 

 by a bird, still less by so small a one as this. It consists of a single call quickly repeated, which may be syllabized 

 as hooop, hooop, hooop ; and this is uttered with the mouth wide open and the bird's head thrust down sideways 

 at each note, an exertion which appears necessary to bring out such a voluminous sound. The most lengthy 

 description on paper would fail to give any idea of the nature of the voice of this and, still more, of the next 

 species; but I am perhaps not wrong in maintaining that the luxuriant woods, the sequestered vales waving 

 with verdant fields of rice, the forest-clad hills and shady palm-groves, all of which go to form the smiling face 

 of nature in Lanka's isle, •would lose no little of their charm for the ornithologist were they devoid of the 

 Crow-Pheasant's resounding call. 



It feeds on a great variety of insects and even reptiles, consuming beetles, slugs, scorpions, centipedes, 

 lizards, and, I believe, small snakes sometimes. It pilfers birds' nests, and eats cither eggs or very young birds. 

 .Mr. Parker informs me that he has seen one trying to get up the tube of a Weaver-bird's nest to attack the 

 young in it, but in this it failed. Jerdon records the fact of a gentleman in the Indian Custom's department 

 having seen one of these birds dragging along a young hedgehog by the ear, a task which it could not well 

 have undertaken had it not contemplated making a meal off the unfortunate animal. 



Nidification. — The species breeds from May until September. Its nest, which is not often discovered, is 

 built in a low tree, generally in the midst of thick woods, and is a large globular structure, composed of twigs 

 and small sticks, with an opening in the side near the top, and is fixed in a fork of a branch or among a mass 

 of small thick boughs. One which I found close to the bungalow on the Gangaroowa estate was placed in a 

 Lantana-ihicket ; it was near the top of a tangled mass of the branches of this well-known pest {Lantana 

 mi. rlii) ; the body of the structure rested in a large saucer-like foundation constructed by the bird of the branches 

 of the Lantana, mixed with others brought to the spot; it was about a foot in external diameter, and the 

 exterior was lind with roots. The eggs were two in number, stumpy ovals in shape, and of a chalky texture, 

 although the surface was smooth ; the colour was pure white in one and buff in the other, and they measured 

 IT) I by I'll inch and I - 15 by PIG inch. 



In India it has been observed by Mr. Blewitt that the nests arc not always domed, some that he has 

 found being simply structures about the size of a large round plate, with a depression in the centre for the 

 eggs; in some instances the nests are placed high up in large trees and in an exposed situation. Three appears 

 to be the normal number of the eggs, although four or five are sometimes met with. 



