on Dr. Jcrdon^s 'Birds of India.' 363 



208 and 209. Polyphasia nigra and P. tenuirostris. 



Barely separable, and included by Prof. Scblegel under 

 Cuculus passerinus, Vabl, as distinguished from the Malayan 

 C. merulinus [C. flaviis, &c.). In the INIalayan Peninsula P. 

 tenuirostris occurs at Piuang, and the smaller P. merulina at 

 Malacca. 



214. EuDYNAMis ORiENTALis. (Egg figured in Jard. Coutrib. 

 Orn. pi. 52.) 



AH India with Ceylon, Indo-Chinese countries (including 

 Siam and Cambogia), China, and Malayan Peninsula. In 

 Sumatra {fide Bonaparte), Java, Philippines, Lombok, Plores, 

 Timor, and Australia {vide Ibis, 1865, p. 32), replaced by E. 

 mindanensis (L.) {E. australis, Swainson, E. fi,indersi, Gould, 

 B. Austr. iv. pi. 91), which is not the supposed E. flindersi of 

 New Zealand referred to by Dr. Jerdon. Prof. Schlegel unites 

 the Indian and Australian Coels, but I have always found them 

 manifestly distinct, the Australian being considerably larger, 

 with a greenish instead of a bluish gloss on the black male, and 

 the nestling-plumage decidedly different. There is a fine series 

 of both races in the Derby Museum at Liverpool. Length 



confidence in the opinion that the single specimen which I have called H. 

 nisoides denotes a pecuhar race, which should be sought for in Butan (as 

 also Hierax melanoleucus, Alcedo grandis, Indicator xanthonotus, and other 

 Sikhim rarities). There certainly is not that fusion of different races which 

 we observe in the instances of the Indian and Indo-Chinese Rollers and in 

 different specific races of Gallophasis. 



The voice differs exceedingly in Cuculus canorus, C. striatus, and C. 

 poliocephalus. That of Hierococcyx sparverioides is " very similar " to that 

 of H. varius, and probably also of other specific races of this form. The 

 vehement whisthng cry of the Chok-gallos or Hawk-Cuckoos is very 

 peculiar among the group. I find that the voice of H. flaviventris is 

 described in a note of Mr. Mottley's (P. Z. S. 1863, p. 209): — "A common 

 bird, though rarely seen, from its habit of flying as it were on the upper 

 side of a large branch to utter its monotonous cry. I have repeatedly 

 tried in vain to discover it, when certainly a dozen must have been crying 

 at once all around me ! Its note is a loud but soft flute-like whistle, 

 repeated three times, and then once again two notes lower, and is continued 

 for several hours together in the evening." This description certainly 

 does not exactly apply to the whistling note of H. varius in India. 



