The call of this bird has been popularly transcribed as "brain-fever" in English (in some old books, this name is also incorrectly used for the Asian koel). Frank Finn noted that "is note, however, fully entitles him to his ordinary designation, whether from its "damnable iteration" or from its remarkable resemblance to the word "brain-fever" repeated in a piercing voice running up the scale". Other interpretations of the bird call include "piyaan kahan" in Hindi ("where's my love") or "chokh gelo" (in Bengali, "my eyes are gone") and "paos ala" (Marathi, "the rains are coming").