M. Sundevall on the Birds of Calcutta. 401 



shell. I could not get to see the nest, but according to Lcvail- 

 lant and Buchanan (in Lath. Gen. Hist.) it is like a crow's nest, 

 in which the bird itself deposits its eggs. This species seems to 

 occur in the whole torrid zone of the old continent, including 

 Ulimaroa. The Bengalese name is kukuill or kokill, formed from 

 the note like the Latin Cuculus. The name Bouyht-Sallik, which 

 the older authors give as Indian, I have not heard. 



48. Cuculus philippensis ?, Vieill. — C. aegyptius ft, auct. (nee C. bu- 

 butus, Horsf. Jav.). Niger alis rufis (Centropus, Illig.). 



Between February and April I several times saw r near Calcutta 

 a rather large black bird with red-brown wings, which certainly 

 was one of the so-coloured species of Cuculidae, with a long claw 

 on the hind-toe as in the larks ; but it was so shy and wary that 

 I could not succeed in shooting it. It was considerably larger 

 than the foregoing, but less than the Javan C. bubutus. Those 

 which I saw were solitary, or two together, and of the same co- 

 lour as far as I could distinguish. They remained on the ground 

 unobserved among bushes, and always flew up at my approach, 

 after which they glided among the bushes and trees, especially 

 those which grew thickly, till I could no longer perceive whither 

 they had gone. No sound was heard from them. The flight 

 was somewhat noisy like that of poultry. In the stretching-out 

 of the neck, the motions and attitudes of the body, they had also 

 a remarkable resemblance to the Gallinacece. This resemblance 

 is still greater in certain African species with yet shorter wings, 

 and a gray spotted plumage, so that there is little except the ar- 

 rangement of the toes, two forwards and two backwards, which 

 distinguishes them from the gallinaceous birds. This difference 

 also disappears in the African Musophagida (e. g. Schizaris cine- 

 ra?,Wagl. = Phasianus africanus, Lath.) and the American Penelo- 

 pidce, which form important links between the Cuckoos and Phea- 

 sants. A remarkable similarity is also seen between the Pigeons 

 and the true Cuckoos, to which C. canorus belongs. The mode 

 of flight and of walking on the ground, the colours, the tender 

 skin and the structure of the feathers have a great resemblance. 

 The feathers of the body have in both these genera the hidden 

 portion of their shafts considerably thickened, spongy, and fur- 

 nished with a branched downy web. In the true Cuckoos too 

 the somewhat slender beak has an erect fleshy margin round the 

 nostrils, which is yet more developed in the Pigeons. 



49. Coracias indica, L. et auct. — C. bengalensis, L., &c. C. nsevia 

 3 adult, Wagler, Syst. (C. ncevia propria ut junior ejusdem speciei 

 loc. cit. describitur, quod in Iside 1829, p. 737- emendatur.) 



Rufescens, capite superne ventreque viridibus ; capitis lateribus 

 juguloque albido striolatis ; rectricibus sequalibus, violaceis, medio 



