Mr. H. Seebohm on the Ornithology of Siberia. 327 



generally repeated two or three times in succession. The 

 bird was very wild, and I only succeeded in shooting two of 

 them, both females — one an old bird in grey plumage, the 

 other in the red plumage of the first year. This Cuckoo is 

 almost an exact miniature of our bird, though the bill is 

 slightly larger than that of the common European Cuckoo, 

 and the barring on the underparts somewhat more distinct. 

 If it had not been for the difference in voice, I should have 

 scarcely supposed it to be more than a small race of our bird. 

 The wings measure 7'Q in. 



CucuLUs STRiATUs_, Drapicz. 



" Cuculus striatus, Drapiez,^^ Jerdon, B. Ind. i. p. 328. 



"Cuculus optatus, Gould,^' Radde, Amurl. ii. p. 135. 



In Dresser^s exhaustive article on the Common Cuckoo in 

 the ' Birds of Europe,' of which he has kindly lent me the 

 proof sheets, he refers to the nearly allied species. Two of 

 these come into my Siberian region, Cuculus optatus, Gould 

 apud Radde, and Cuculus sparverioides, Vigors apud Schrenck. 

 Dresser identifies C. optatus with C. himalayanus. In this I 

 cannot agree with him. After comparing Jerdon's excellent 

 description of the note of the Himalayan species with Radde^'s 

 minute account of the note of the Amoor bird, I think we 

 may positively state that C. optatus, Gould apud Radde, is 

 not C. himalayanus, Vigors apud Jerdon. The dimensions 

 given by Radde are much too large for those of C. himalay- 

 anus, and agree best with those of C. striatus. After exam- 

 ining the cuckoos in the British Museum, I do not feel much 

 doubt that Radde's bird was a specimen of C. striatus. 



Cuculus hyperythrus, Gould. 



Von Schrenck gives an excellent figure of what he thinks, 

 somewhat doubtfully, to be an immature male of Cuculus 

 sparverioides, Vigors. I have two skins lately brought from 

 Japan by Mr. Heywood Jones, which agree exactly with 

 Schrenck's plate. They appear to me to be much too small 

 for C. sparverioides ; and I am inclined to identify both the 

 Amoor and the Japan birds with the Cuculus hyperythrus of 

 Gould, described by him in the P. Z. S. of 1856, p. 96, and 

 figured in the ' Birds of Asia ^ (pt. 8) . 



