262 
CENTEOPUS EUFIPENNIS. 
shy, walking about the native compounds sometimes close to bouses, 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 parclied-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 Areca-palm, of which it is very fond, and which generally stand in the vicinity of native 
houses. Into these it flies 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 
a sign of either 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 lias 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 hWop, 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, ot 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 cats either eggs or very young birds. 
Mr. Parker informs me that he has seen one trying to get up the tube ot 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. 
Nidifi cation— 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- thicket ; it was near the top of a tangled mass of the branches of this well-known pest ( Lantana 
mixta) ; 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 iu 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 
Pol by 1T4 inch and 1*45 by 1*16 inch. 
In India it has been observed by Mr. Blewitt that the nests are 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. 
