134 CUCULUS CANORUS. 



as follows. The bill, which is much shorter and less curved 

 than that of the adult, is dusky, with the sides of both mandi- 

 bles yellowish ; the iris brown, the feet and claws dull yellow, 

 the latter a little dusky towards the end. The upper parts are 

 transversely banded with light red and dark greyish-brown, 

 most of the feathers being also tipped with reddish -white. The 

 alula, j)rimary quills and their coverts are clove-brown, narrow- 

 ly tipped with reddish-white, marked along their outer webs 

 with squarish spots of light red, and on their inner with bars 

 of paler red, the spots and bars not extending to the shafts ; the 

 secondary quills and their coverts are like the back. There is 

 more red on the rump, and the tail-feathers are diagonally 

 banded with light red and blackish-brown, with a white tip, 

 the part of each red band close to the shaft being also white. 

 On the occiput are generally some partially white feathers. 

 The fore-part and sides of the neck are transversely banded 

 with blackish-brown and white, more or less tinged with red. 

 The rest of the lower parts, including the wing-coverts, are 

 white, with narrower and more distant bands of dusky ; the 

 lower tail coverts reddish-wdiite, with dusky spots and imper- 

 fect bars. 



The above description is taken from a bird shot in Forfar- 

 shire, and having the bill two-twelfths of an inch shorter than 

 that of an adult, with the tail-feathers not fully developed. M. 

 Temminck is therefore in error when he describes this state of 

 plumage as characteristic of the bird when a year old :~" Top of 

 the head, nape, back and all the coverts of the wings transverse- 

 ly barred with deep red and black ; quills blackish, terminated 

 by a small white spot ; the ovoidal spots of the inner barbs of 

 a reddish-white ; on the outer barbs red square spots ; feathers 

 of the tail red, marked with diagonal black bands ; a broad 

 transverse band towards the end, and all tipped with white ; 

 on the shafts small white spots ; sides and fore part of the 

 neck of a reddish- white with numerous blackish-bands." 



A young bird having the tail and wings yet so short that it 

 was unable to fly, and which was found in the King's Park 

 near Edinburgh, was similar to the above, but with the upper 

 parts darker, and an individual sent to me by Mr Weir in 1838 

 was coloured in the same manner. At this early age M. Tem- 



