Very different is the cry of the little scops owl (_Scops giu_). This bird has none of that Gladstonian flow of eloquence which characterises the spotted and the jungle owlets. His note is, however, more befitting the dignity of an owl. He speaks only in monosyllables, and gives vent to those with great deliberation. He sits on a bough and says “_wow_” in a soft but decisive manner. When this pronouncement has had time to sink into the ears of his listeners, he repeats “_wow_,” and continues to sound this impressive monotone at intervals of a minute for several hours.
The above are the three owls which are most often heard in the plains of Northern India. Sometimes all three species, like the orators in Hyde Park, address the world simultaneously from neighbouring trees.
There are numbers of other owls that disturb the stillness of the night with more or less vigour, but it would be tedious, if not impossible, to describe them all. It must suffice to make mention of the low, solemn booming _durgoon durgoon_, of the huge rock-horned owl (_Bubo bengalensis_) and the wheezy screech of the barn owl (_Strix flammea_).
Another call, often heard shortly before dawn, is doubtless usually believed to be that of an owl. This is the deep, _whoot, whoot, whoot_ of the coucal or crow pheasant (_Centropus sinensis_), that curious chocolate-winged black ground-cuckoo which builds its nest in a dense thicket.
Unfortunately for the peace of mankind the coucal is not the only cuckoo that lifts up its voice in the night. Three species of cuckoo exist in India which are nocturnal as owls, as diurnal as crows, and as noisy as a German band. A couple of hours’ sleep in the hottest part of the day appears to be ample for the needs of these super-birds. From this short slumber they awake, like giants refreshed, to spend the greater portion of the remaining two-and-twenty hours in shrieking at the top of their voices.
Needless to state these three species are the brain-fever bird, the koel, and the Indian cuckoo—a triumvirate that it is impossible to match anywhere else in the world. Some there are who fail to distinguish between these three giants, and who believe that they are but one bird with an infinite variety of notes. This is not so. They are not one bird, but three birds. Let us take them in order of merit.