M. Sundevall on the Birds of Calcutta. 399 



descripti. Aff. C. solitario, Cuv., Le Vaill. Afr. 205, — et radiato, 

 Lath. 22.) 



Cinereus, pectore sordide fulvescente, ventre cinereo-fasciato ; 

 cauda cinerea fasciis 6 angustis, nigris, postice albido marginatis. 



$ adultus Febr., Martio. Magnitude-, structura et ratio partium 

 ut Cuculi canori : rostrum, nares, pedesque omnino illius. Differt 

 rectricibus lateralibus minus abbreviatis, et remige 4 a reliquis lon- 

 giore (in canoro 3 a reliquis longior). Longit. 14 poll. Ala 200 

 millim., tarsus 20, cauda 180. Plumarum rhachides parte occulta 

 paullo tumida, lanato barbata. Color superne immaculatus, vinaceo- 

 cinereus. Gula pallide cinerea. Pectus et latera corporis vinaceo- 

 testacea, posterius pallidiora, fasciis non crebris, transversis, pallide 

 cinereis. Abdomen et crissum albida. Alae colore dorsi, pennis 

 fuscioribus, intus fasciis triangularibus, abbreviatis albis. Caudae 

 fasciae bis arcuatae ; apex latius niger, late testaceo-marginatus. Iris 

 flava. Pedes saturate flavi*. 



This species shows much similarity to our Cuckoo, and the 

 mode of life seems also nearly to correspond. When flying or 

 reposing on a tree, as well as when walking on the ground, it 

 altogether resembled that bird, but the note was quite different ; 

 it sounds like parupiu ! peripiu ! piripiu ! The third syllable is 

 long, and every word is pronounced about twice, nearly in this 

 manner : — 



i 



a ^H%^ ^* 



S=3z=tt—* 



1 — I- 



It thus mounts the scale of notes at every second cry, three or 

 four times, till the note is as high as the bird can raise it, when 

 it makes a short pause and begins anew. Thus it continues for 

 whole hours, especially in the morning and evening, even after 

 it is quite dark. When one is in a house surrounded by trees, 

 as at Serampore, this nocturnal music becomes wearisome, for it 

 is anything but agreeable ; it is in the highest degree harsh, 

 grating and incessant. What especially adds to its unpleasant- 

 ness is that the bird makes all the intervals alike, without attend- 

 ing to the semitones, which to our ears are essential in music. 

 The specimens obtained (two males) were very fat, with tender 

 skins, as in our Cuckoo. They had eaten a great number of 

 caterpillars, but as these were not hairy ones the stomach was 

 not rendered internally villose, as is the case with C. canorus 



* This species was first described under the name of Cuculus varhis by 

 Vahl near fifty years ago in a paper on the birds of Tranquebar in the 

 * Skrivter af Naturhistorie-Selskabet,' published at Copenhagen, vol. iv. 

 part 1. p. 61. C.fugax, Horsfield, and C. Lathami, Gray, 111. Ind. Orn. are 

 later synonyms. — II. E. S. 



