KHASIA HILLS CUCKOO 101 



the European cuckoo; the lower back, rump, and upper tail coverts 

 are a purer and somewhat lighter gray; the wing quills and con- 

 cealed portions of greater coverts more brown, the quills slightly 

 glossed and barred with white on the inner webs of the outer pri- 

 maries, turning to rufous on the inner primaries; tail ashy black 

 tipped with white and with white notches along the sides of the 

 shafts, the white increasing in extent on the lateral tail feathers; 

 chin, throat, sides of head and neck, and the upper breast ashy gray, 

 not so dark as the back; remainder of lower parts, axillaries, and 

 under wing coverts Avhite with rather irregular bands of black, 

 broader and farther apart than in G. c. canorus. Under tail coverts 

 the same but with the dark bars still farther apart. 



Female : Differs in having a rufous tinge on the upper breast and 

 sometimes on the throat and sides of the neck. 



Nestling: Naked when hatched. 



Juvenile: First plumage; whole plumage brownish gray or slate, 

 obsoletely barred with huffish white; a patch of white on the nape 

 or hind neck; whole lower plumage barred white or rufescent white 

 and dark brown, very heavily on the chin, throat, and breast, and 

 less so on the under tail coverts. 



The young male after the first molt is like the adult but nearly 

 always retains traces of the juvenile barring, more especially so on 

 the wings. 



Hepatic females have the whole upper parts barred chestnut and 

 blackish slate or blackish brown; the lower plmnage has the chin, 

 throat, and breast barred pale chestnut and blackish and generally 

 with a strong rufous tinge on the breast and abdomen. 



Young hepatic females are duller in color than the adults and 

 have the feathers of the upper part fringed with white. 



Colors of soft parts. — Iris pale to deep yellow, sometimes brown- 

 ish in young birds of the year ; bill dark horny brown, or very dark 

 horny green, paler and yellowish at the base and on the commissure 

 and orange-yellow on the gape; legs and feet wax-yellow. 



Measurements. — ^Wing 220 to 227; tail 155 to 178; tarsus 18 (La 

 Touche) to 19; culmen from feathers of forehead 20 to 22 milli- 

 meters (24 La Touche). 



Food. — The principal food of this, as of other cuckoos, consists 

 of caterpillars, pupae, chrysalides, and soft insects of any kind. Dur- 

 ing flights of termites cuckoos may be seen both catching them on 

 the wing and eating them on the ground as they emerge from it. I 

 have also taken Cicadae from their stomachs, and occasionally quite 

 hard beetles of considerable size. 



The actions of this bird when attempting, and indeed succeed- 

 ing in, the catching of termites in flight are very clumsy and labored 



