CUCKOW. 407 



quarters ; the first primary nearly three inches shorter than 

 the second, which varies in its proportion to the fourth. 



The female is commonly a little smaller than the male, 

 but there is no other outward distinction of sex. 



Young birds in their first plumage have the irides brown : 

 the upper parts generally, except a white spot on the nape, 

 clove-brown, barred with brownish-red, wing- and tail-quills 

 clove-brown, the former barred on the outer web with brownish- 

 red, and on the inner with white, the latter barred irregularly 

 with brownish-red and interruptedly with white ; neck, 

 breast, and lower parts, dull white, often tinged with buff, 

 and more or less closely barred with blackish-brown. In 

 this stage they form the Cuculus hepatic us of some authors. 



Certain examples, presumably young, put on a plumage 

 very different from that generally assumed, and such indi- 

 viduals have been described as forming a distinct species 

 under the name of C. rufus. One of them shot at Dod- 

 dington in Kent, about 1850, and now in the Cambridge 

 Museum, is of a dull, light red or pale cinnamon-colour, 

 rather closely barred, except on the upper tail-coverts, with 

 dull blackish-brown : the tail has the tip white, but perhaps 

 a little less clear than usual, while the chin, throat, and 

 upper part of the breast are much as the upper parts, but 

 paler and with a finer barring, and the breast and belly are 

 dull white with fewer and thinner bars ; the lower tail-coverts 

 are pale buff. 



The vignette represents the sternum of this species. 



vol. n. 3 g 



