634 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



Sp. 388. CENTROPUS PHASIANUS 



Pheasant-Coucal. 

 Cuculus phasianus, Lath. Ind. Orn., Supp. vol. ii. p. 30. 

 Polophilus phasianus, Leach, Zool. Misc., vol. i. p. 116. pi. 46. 



variegatus, Leach, lb., pi. 51. 



leucogaster, lb., p. 117. pi. 52. 



gigas, Steph. Cont. of Shaw's Gen. Zool., vol. ix. p. 45. 



Cuculus gig as, Cuv. Regn. Anim., torn. i. p. 426, not. 1. 

 Corydonix phasianus, Vieill. N. Dt. d'Hist. Nat., torn, xxxiv. p. 295. 



giganteus, Vieill. lb., p. 295. 



variegatus, Vieill. lb., p. 298. 



leucogaster, Vieill. lb., p. 299. 



Centropus gigas, Steph. Cont. of Shaw's Gen. Zool., vol. xiv. part i. 

 p. 214. 



variegatus, Steph. lb., p. 214. 



phasianus, Steph. lb., p. 214. 



leucogaster, Steph. lb., p. 214. 



phasianinus, Blyth, Cat. of Birds Mus. Asiat. Soc, Calc. p. 78. 



Centropus phasianus, Gould, Birds of Australia, fol., vol. iv. pi. 92. 



The Centropus inhabiting New South Wales differs from that 

 found at Port Essington in having a much shorter and more 

 arched bill, and in being somewhat smaller in size ; specimens 

 from the western coast again differ in being smaller than the 

 bird of New South Wales, in having a more attenuated bill 

 and a more uniform colouring of the tail. The greater part 

 of the coast-line of New South Wales, the eastern, northern, 

 and north-western portions of Australia generally are tenanted 

 by Centropi, but only in such situations as are favourable to 

 their habits, namely swampy places among the brushes 

 abounding with tall grasses and dense herbage, among which 

 they run with facility, and when necessity prompts, fly to the 

 lower branches of the trees, from which they ascend in a suc- 

 cession of leaps from branch to branch until they nearly reach 

 the top, and then they fly off to a neighbouring tree. The most 

 westerly part of New South Wales in which I have heard of 



