234 



CUCULIDyE. 



Bill pale green ; irides pale blue ; bare orbital space orange, 

 palest round the eye, shading to blood-red at the posterior angle ; 

 legs and feet plumbeous green {Davison). 



Length about 16; tail 9*5; wing 5-5; tarsus 1*4; bill from 

 gape 1"5. 



Distribution. Tenasserim, south of Mergui (common on the 

 island of Mergui), the Malay Peninsula, Java, Sumatra, and 

 Borneo. 



Genus PHffiNICOPHAES, Vieillot, 1816. 



Bill stout, wide at the base, compressed in front ; culmen 

 curved throughout, upper mandible very high ; nostril a narrow 

 longitudinal slit, parallel to the commissure and close to it. Sides 

 of the head naked and papillose, the bare skin extending across 

 the forehead all round the base of the upper mandible ; no eye- 

 lashes. Tail long, broad, and graduated ; wing rounded. Feathers 

 of crown and throat with stiff projecting shafts. Sexes only 

 differing in the colour of the iris. 



A single species. 



Fig. 66. — Head of P. pyrrhocejihalus, \. 



1126. Phoenicophaes pyrrhocephalus. The Bed-faced Malkoha. 



Ouculus pyrrhocephalus, Forster, Ind. Zool. p. 16, pi. yi (1781). 

 Phoenicophfeus pyrrhocephalus, Blijth^ J. A. 8. B. xi, p. 927 ; id. 

 Cat. p. 75 ; Layard, A. M. N. H. (2) xiii, p. 453 ; Holdsworth, 

 P. Z. S. 1872, p. 433 ; Leffffe, S. F. i, p. 346. 

 Phoenicophaes pyrrhocephalus, Walden, Tr. Z. S. viii, p. 52, fig. 8 ; 

 Sharpe, P. Z. <S. 1873, p. 605, fig. 11 ; Hu77ie, Cat. no. 216 bis ; 

 Leffffe, Birds Ceyl. p. 255, pi. xii ; Parker, Ibis, 1886, p. 184 ; 

 Shelley, Cat. B. M. xix, p. 395. 

 MaUkeendetta, Warreliya, Cingalese. (The first-named appears to 

 have been the origin of the term Malkoha, quoted by_ Forster, and 

 applied to several Ground-Cuckoos by European ornithologists.) 



Coloration. Crown, hind neck, and sides of neck black, with 



