CUCUL1N.E. 323 



an example in immature plumage recently at Moulmeiu, in October : 

 and it has been found, though rarely, in Ceylon. Its well known 

 call has given rise to many of its names in different languages, and it 

 will be seen above that the Lepcha name nearly corresponds with 

 the English. In Southern India, it is only (apparently) a very 

 stracTglinof and rare visitor. In Central India it remains two or three 

 months in the spring, and may breed, as its call has been heard by 

 me, at Goomsoor, Saugor, and Nagpore, in May and June: but I 

 suspect that most of the birds that pass that way have completed 

 their task for the season in the hills, and then left them to straggle 

 over the plains of the South. I could not ascertain what bird it 

 selected at Darjeeling to bring up its young. 



]\Ir. Blyth kept a pair alive, and was, at one time, inclined to 

 imagine that the note was its familiar note until it was separated 

 from female, somewhat harsher and less musical that that of the 

 English bird. The male never uttered its familiar note until it was 

 separated from the female. 



200. Cuculus Himalayanus, Yigoes. 



p. Z. S. 1831— Blyth, Cat. 342— Horsf., Cat. 1025— C. 

 saturatus, Hodgson — Tokdun, Lepch. — Sutendun, Bhot. 



Tde Himalayan Cuckoo. 



Descr. —Upper parts uniform pure dark-ashy, with a faint gloss 

 of green on the back ; pale grey on the throat and breast ; the rest 

 beneath white, with rather close and moderately narrow bars of 

 dusky -black ; wings cinereous, with a brownish tinge ; the inner 

 webs with numerous and wide spots or bars ; tail deep grey, with 

 large white spots. 



Length nearly 12 inches ; wing 7 ; tail 5^ to 5| ; bill at front y|. 



The young bird is not so strongly marked with white, as in the 

 preceding species ; throat and breast are dusky-brown, with white 

 edges ; and the abdomen has the bars wider. 



This may be said to be a small likeness of C. canorus, which 

 it much resembles in colors and the striation, but it has the bill 

 proportionally stronger. I have only seen it at Darjeeling ; but 

 it is found throughout the Himalayas ; extending likewise to the 

 Tenasseiim Provinces, where obtained by Mr. Blyth and others. 



