Australian Birds in the Collection of the Linnean Society. 303 
fuscous band near the apex. We have met with many specimens 
of C. lucidus, all of which accorded in these markings with the 
bird in our collection: but we have not seen any other speci- 
men of the C. metallicus besides the bird before us. This bird 
differs also from C. chalcites, Ill., which has been described as a 
New Holland Cuckoo, in having the abdomen fasciated, which in 
both sexes of the other bird is pure white and free from mark- 
ings *. | 
: i Genus. Eupynamyst. 
Rostrum crassum, subelongatum, culmine rotundato, a basi ar- 
cuato, lateribus subcompressis : mandibulá superiore apice 
subemarginaté, inferiore gonyde ascendente conspicua: 
naribus subgrandibus, patulis, ovalibus, subobliqué positis, 
suprà membrana partim tectis. — ^. s ism 
Ale subbreves, rotundatæ; remigibus tertià quartà et quintâ 
- ferè æqualibus longissimis, primá brevi undecimæ æquali ; 
| pogoniis integris. 
Pedes robusti, nudi ; acrotarsiis ad latus externum compressissi- 
mis, in scuta quatuor grandia divisis; paratarsiis in medio 
— compressis, in scutula plurima divisis. 
Cauda elongata, patula, rotundata. 
The true Cuckoos, or that portion of the present family of 
Cuculide which constitutes the genus Cuculus, Auct., is distin- 
guished from the remaining groups of the family by the compa- 
rative weakness of the bill, in which the nares are small and 
rounded, and situated on an elevated membrane ; by the wings 
being strongly acuminated, the primary quill-feathers consi- 
derably exceeding the secondary in length ; and by the feeble- 
ness of the legs and toes, the former of which are plumed 
beneatlt the knee, and are generally covered by the thigh- 
* See Temm. Pl. Col. 109. f. 2. + Ev bene, and uyapis potentia. — 
feathers. 
