184- Recentlt/ published Ornithological Works. 



( Urncichla longicaudata) and the local form of Laughing- 

 Thrush [Dryonedes subcceruleus) . 



Mr, Stuart Baker's List of Species is compiled from the 

 collections of Hume, Godwin- Austen, and others, and from 

 several collections made by his own men. He follows the 

 arrangement and nomenclature of the ' Fauna of British 

 India,' and gives short notes to each species. As regards the 

 subfamily Brachypteryginse of the C rat eropod idee, he remarks 

 that, although for the sake of convenience he retains Oates's 

 classification, there is no doubt that the majority of the 

 birds placed in this family in the 'Fauna of British India' 

 belong elsewhere. He would accordingly refer the genera 

 Myiophoneus, Larvivora, and Drymuchares to the Turdidaj. 



Altogether Mr. Stuart Baker enumerates about S36 species 

 as belonging to the Khasian Avifauna. 



22. Stuart Baker on the Indian Cuckoos. 



[The Oology of Indian Parasitic Cuckoos. By E. C. Stuart Baker, 

 F.Z.S. Journ. Bombay N. H. Soc. 1906-8. (Parts I.-V.)] 



The abnormal breeding-habits of the Cuckoos are of 

 special interest to all naturalists, aud Mr. Stuart-Baker has 

 done well to prepare a series of papers on the engrossing 

 subject of their eggs, to which he has long devoted his 

 attention. 



" The great difficulty," he observes, " to be overcome in 

 collecting Cuckoos' eggs is not so much to get hold of eggs 

 which are Cuckoos' beyond all doubt, but to obtain proof as 

 to what particular Cuckoo they belong to. To do this it is 

 absolutely necessary to get eggs direct from the oviduct of 

 the female, aud because Cuckoos' eggs vary so much it is of 

 no use to get one egg only, but series are required." The 

 Indian Parasitic Cuckoos, to which Mr. Stuart-Baker con- 

 fines his attention, are 17 in number, belonging to the 

 genera Cuculus, Hierococcyx, Cacomantis, Penthoceryx, 

 Chrysococcyx, Suruiculus, Coccystes, and Eudynamis. The 

 true Cuculi in India are four. Our familiar C. catiorus, 

 w4iich heads the list, is stated to breed freely throughout 

 the Himalayas and Sub-Himalayas, the Burmese Hills, 



