Cuculus intermedins, Vahl.
The Asiatic Cuckoo.

Cuculus himalayanus, Vig., Jerd. B. Ind. i, p. 323.
Cuculus striatus, Drop., Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 200.

This species, the Asiatic Cuckoo, lays during June, and only I believe in the Himalayas within our limits, though its wanderings are extended far and wide, and I have myself quite recently shot it in the southern group of the Nicobars.

I have never taken the eggs, but have obtained the young in company with Trochalopterum lineatum, the species that most  commonly officiates as foster - parents for this Cuckoo.

Writing from Mussoorie, Captain Hutton says  : -“The natives have an idea that this bird builds its own nest and rears its young itself: this is erroneous, but it evidently arises from the curious fact that, when the young bird is old enough to leave the nest, the foster - parents feed it no longer, and it is then supplied by the old Cuckoo, or at all events by one of the same species. This I have myself repeatedly witnessed, and think it not improbable that others of the Cuckoo tribe may do the same thing, for it seems almost incredible that Trochahpterum lineatum, in whose nest the egg of C. intermedius is often dropped, could supply so voracious a bird after it had left the nest, neither could the little Hedge - Sparrow s of England do so for the young of Cuculus canorus. At Jeripanee, below Mussoorie, I have seen the young Cuckoo sitting for hours together on a branch waiting for the return of the adult bird, which continued every now and then to bring supplies of caterpillars wherewith to satisfy the apparently insatiable appetite of the nestling, until at last both would fly off to another spot.   To satisfy myself that it was really this Cuckoo that fed the young, I shot one in the very act, and found it to be no other than our summer visitant, Cuculus intermedius."

One egg taken out of a female bird of this species (which he shot at Ruttun Pir, Cashmir, on the 17th June) by Mr. Brooks is a very perfect elongated oval, a shade narrower at one end. The ground - colour is pure white, with a slight gloss. The markings, which are everywhere very sparse, are somewhat most numerous towards the larger end, and consist of minute specks and tiny lines, not more than 0.05 inch in length, of dingy olive - brown and very pale inky purple or purplish grey.

The egg measures 0.89 by 0.6 inch.