Also coel, koïl. [Hindī kóīl, f. Skr. kokila.] A cuckoo of the genus Eudynamis, esp. the E. honorata of India, and the E. flindersi of New Guinea and Australia.
1826. Erskine, trans. Baber’s Mem., 323, note. The koel … has a kind of song, and is the nightingale of Hindustan.
1834. [A. Prinsep], Baboo, I. ii. 18. The ever-green shrubberies formed … a sheltered choir for the mango-bird, the meina, and the coel.
1865. Gould, Handbk. Birds Australia, I. 632. Australian Koel.
1886. R. Kipling, Departm. Ditties, etc. (1899), 113. The rose has lost its fragrance, and the köil’s note is strange.
1888. Gould, Birds New Guinea, IV. pl. 41. The Koels or Black Cuckoos of the genus Eudynamys.
