238 



CUCULID^. 



Coloration. Upper parts light earthy brown, varying in tint 

 from olive-grey to pale sandy or yellowish browTi, always with 

 more or less of a green satiny gloss on the wings and middle tail- 

 feathers, and generally with some on the upper surface throughout ; 

 quills hair-brown ; all tail-feathers except the middle pair black with 

 broad white tips, middle tail-feathers narrowly and subobsoletely 

 banded ; chin and throat pale buff, fore-neck and upper breast 

 varying from greyish brown more or less tinged with rufous to 

 buff like the throat ; lower breast and abdomen, with the wing- 

 lining, rufous, varying in depth of tint ; shafts of head, neck, back, 

 and upper breast-feathers shining black. 



Bill cherry-red, yellowish at the tip ; irides reddish brown ; feet 

 plumbeous {Jerdon). 



Length 16-5 to 17*5 ; tail 8*5 to 10 ; wing 5 to 6'5 ; tarsus 1-7 ; 

 bill from gape 1'4. 



Fig. 68. — Head of T. leschenaulti, \. 



Distribution. The Peninsula of India and Ceylon. This species 

 inhabits the lower Himalayas from the Bhutan Duars to Chamba, 

 and is found, though very rarely, in Sind and the Punjab on the 

 west, and throughout Bengal on the east, but not beyond ; it is 

 generally distributed in the peninsula, but is not common ; and in 

 Ceylon it is rare and local ; it ascends the hills in Southern India 

 to 5000 or 6000 feet and those of Ceylon to about 4000. 



As with many other Indian birds there are three fairly marked 

 races : (1) a large dark-coloured form {T. infuscata) inhabits the 

 base of the Himalayas ; (2) a paler race, not quite so large (T. s-irhi), 

 is found in Upper India, the N.'W. Provinces, Punjab, &c. ; whilst 

 (3) the birds of Southern India and Ceylon are smaller and darker 

 (T. leschenaulti). Skins from Bengal and the Central Provinces 

 {T. affinis) are intermediate in character. Hume has shown that of 

 the four supposed species of Blyth and Jerdon only two can be 

 distinguished at all, and these pass into each other, and Shelley has, 

 I think, rightly imited the whole. The English name "Sirkeer" 

 was used by Latham, Hist. Birds, iii, p. 267. The origin of the 

 term, a supposed Indian name " Surkool " or " Sircea," has not 

 been traced. As it is impossible to say which of the specific 



