malayan cuckoo (_Cuculus saturatus_). The call of this bird, which
continues later in the year than that of the common cuckoo, is not
unlike the _whoot-whoot-whoot_ of the crow-pheasant or coucal.
Perhaps it is even more like the _uk-uk-uk_ of the hoopoe repeated
very loudly. It may be syllabised as _cuck-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo_. Not very
much is known about the habits of this species. It is believed to
victimise chiefly willow-warblers.

The Indian cuckoo (_Cuculus micropterus_) resembles in appearance
the two species already described. Blanford speaks of its call as
a fine melodious whistle. I would not describe the note as a whistle.
To me it sounds like _wherefore_, _wherefore_, impressively and
sonorously intoned. The vernacular names _Boukotako_ and
_Kyphulpakka_ are onomatopoetic, as is Broken Pekoe Bird, by which
name the species is known to many Europeans.

Last, but not least of the common Himalayan cuckoos, are the famous
brain-fever birds, whose crescendo _brain-fever_, _BRAIN-FEVER_,
_BRAIN-FEVER_, which is shrieked at all hours of the day and the night,
has called forth untold volumes of awful profanity from jaded
Europeans living in the plains, and has earned the highest encomiums
of Indians.

There are two species of brain-fever bird that disport themselves
in the Himalayas. These are known respectively as the large and the
common hawk-cuckoo (_Hierococcyx sparverioides_ and _H. varius_).
I do not profess to distinguish with certainty between the notes of
these two birds, but am under the impression that the larger form
is the one that makes itself heard at Naini Tal and Mussoorie.

The Indian koel (_Eudynamis honorata_) is not to be numbered among
the common birds of the Himalayas. Its noisy call _kuil_, _kuil_,
_kuil_, which may be expressed by the words _you're-ill_,
_you're-ill_, _who-are-you?_ _who-are-you?_ is heard throughout the
sub-Himalayan regions in the early summer, and I have heard it as
high up as Rajpur below Mussoorie, but have not noticed the bird at
any of the hill stations except Almora. As has already been stated,
the avifauna of Almora, a little station in the inner hills nearly
forty miles from the plains, is a very curious one. I have not only
heard the koel calling there, but have seen a young koel being fed
by crows. Now, at Almora alone of the hill stations does _Corvus
splendens_, the Indian house-crow, occur, and this is the usual victim
of the koel. I would therefore attribute