PHCENICOPHAINiE. 227 



tipped with pale rufous, the chiu and throat white, under tail- 

 coverts and edges of tail-feathers buff. 



Bill black ; mouth inside salmon-colour ; iris pale reddish 

 brown ; eyelids plumbeous ; legs plumbeous, claws horny. 



Length about 18*5 ; tail 9-5 ; wing 6*4 ; tarsus 1-1 ; bill from 

 gape 1*4. 



Distribution. This is a very rare bird in India. Jerdon states 

 that he saw it in Malabar and the Carnatic, and that it has been 

 found in Central India (? Chutia Nagpur). There are skins in 

 the Hume collection from Madras, Trichinopoly, and the Nilgiris. 

 The only other recorded occurrence I can find is at Sawant Wiiri, 

 where Mr. Vidal obtained a specimen. The species appears to be 

 rather more common in Ceylon. It is found at the base of the 

 Himalayas in Nepal and farther east, in Assam, Eastern Bengal, 

 Tipperah, the Guro hills, and throughout Burma, being common 

 in Pegu, and its range extends to the Malay Peninsula, [Southern 

 China, the Philippines, Borneo, and Celebes. 



Habits, S,r. In Ceylon this Cuckoo is migratory, according to 

 Legge, arriving on the western coast (probably from India) about 

 October, and leaving in April. Elsewhere it is believed to be 

 resident. In Pegu, as observed by Oates, it is seen singly or in 

 pairs in thick jungle, and is entirely arboreal, feeding on cater- 

 pillars. An egg obtained from the oviduct of a female in Tip- 

 perah was uniform greenish blue, and measured 1*05 by '92. 

 The eggs are probably deposited in nests of Grateropus or Garrulax, 

 or their allies. 



Subfamily PHCENICOPHAIN^. 



The present subfamily contains a group of Cuckoos of very 

 inferior powers of flight, and for the most part inhabitants of 

 thick bush. Many of them feed on the ground, a few are fru- 

 givorous. Only one genus, Eudynamis, which is in other respects 

 aberrant, has parasitic nesting-habits and lays coloured eggs ; all 

 the others make nests and hatch their eggs like other birds, and 

 have white eggs. 



The tarsus in this subfamily is always naked, the wing short 

 and rounded, the tail generally long, well graduated, and broad. 

 In many of the genera the plumage of the head and neck is spiny. 

 The accessory femoro-caudal muscle is present, and the pectoral 

 tract of feathers on each side divides, opposite the articulation of 

 the humerus, into two branches, which terminate separately. 



Key to the Genera. 



a. Tail and wing subequal in length ; head- 



feathers not spiny Eudynamis, p, 228. 



b. Tail much longer than wing ; head-feathers 



spiny. 

 a'. Claws of all toes similar. 



a". Feathers of back and breast not spiny. 



Q2 



