CUCULUS. 371 



334. CUCULUS CANORUS Linnaeus. 



EUROPEAN CUCKOO. 



Cucuhis canorus Lixn.ecs, Syst. Nat. ed. 10 (1758), 1, 110; Shelley, Cat. 

 Birds Brit. Mus. (1891), 19, 245; Blaxford, Fauna Brit. Ind. Bds. 

 (1895), 3, 205, fig. 60 (head); Sharpe. Hand-List (1900), 2, 158; 

 Gates and Reid, Cat. Birds Eggs (1903). 3, 105; McGregor and Wor- 

 cester. Hand-List (1906). 61. 



Basilan (Mcdregor); Batan {McGregor); Calayan {McGregor); Palawan 

 {Platen) ; Siquijor {Bourns <& Worcester) . Europe and northern Asia; in winter 

 to Africa, Indian Peninsula, Malayan subregion to Australia. 



"Adult male. — General color above leaden gray, slightly shaded with 

 olive on the mantle and wings; quills dark brown, more or less notched 

 with white on the inner webs; lateral upper tail-coverts narrowly edged 

 and partially barred with white; tail slaty black, with white ends to all 

 the feathers and with about seven double white spots along their shafts 

 and white notches on their inner webs never forming bars across the 

 feathers; sides of the head and neck, chin, and throat gray, slightly 

 paler than the crown; remainder of the under parts white, shaded with 

 buff on the abdomen and under tail-coverts, and very regularly barred 

 with dusky black; axillars and under wing-coverts barred like the breast, 

 with a portion near the bend of the wing and most of the greater series 

 leaden gray; quills beneath dusky brown, with white bars on their inner 

 webs, broadest and most strongly marked toward the base of the feathers. 

 Bill black, yellowish at the base and edges ; iris and legs yellow. Length, 

 356; eulmen, 229; wing, 226; tail, 178; tarsus^ 20. 



"Adult female. — Differs only in plumage from the male in having the 

 base of the throat shaded with rufous. Length, 320 ; eulmen, 22 ; wing, 

 211; tail, 173; tarsus, 19. 



"Nestling. — General plumage above dark brown, partially barred with 

 rufous, with a narrow white terminal margin to each of the feathers, 

 broadest on the wings and tail ; crown and nape much mottled with 

 white; sides of the head, chin, and throat blackish brown and white 

 in broad bars of nearly even breadth ; remainder of the under surface of 

 the body white, with blackish brown bars not half the widtli of the inter- 

 vening wiiite spaces. Length, 170; wing, 127. 



"Young nearly full-grown. — Above gray, passing into brownish black 

 on the head, wings, and tail ; crown and nape mottled with white feathers; 

 feathers of the head, neck, wings, and tail strongly barred with rufous; 

 remainder of the back much less distinctly barred, each feather being 

 tipped with white next to a subterminal dark bar; tail with waved rufous 

 bars passing into white near the shafts of the feathers and with white 



