CUCULINiE. • 333 



208. Polyphasia Nigra, apud Blyth. 



Cuculus, apud Blyth, Cat. 347, in part — Horsf., Cat. 1018 

 in part — C. niger, vel pyrommatus, Hodgson — C. Ilavus, apud 

 Jerdon, Cat. 224 — Fuusya, Mahr. — Chinna katti pitta, Tel. 



The Indian Plaintive Cuckoo. 



Dencr. — Adult, uniform dark ashy above, with more or less of a 

 green gloss ; beneath, pale ashy ; vent and under tail-coveits pure 

 white ; quills dusky, with a broad white band on the inner web 

 of each feather ; tail blackisli ; the inner webs banded with white 

 (except the middle pair), and all tipped white. 



Bill blackish, red at base beneath and at the gape and within ; 

 feet reddish-yellow ; irides fine ruby-red, in some brownish-red. 



Length 9 inches ; wing 4| ; tail 4^ ; bill at front y^^j ; tarsus 

 f^ ; extent 14. 



A common phase of this species in South India is dusky cinere- 

 ous, almost blackish, above, with a greenish gloss ; beneath the same, 

 but less glossed; tail as in the last, but darker and witli fewer white 

 spots. The younger state of this phase is glossy dark cinereous 

 only on the back and wings, the head and rump being ashy, chin 

 and throat cinereous, breast darker cinereous, banded with rufous 

 and white ; belly pale cinereous, faintly marked with pale rufous 

 and white ; under tail-coverts white ; tail as in the last. 



In some states of plumage, probably analogous to the hepaticus 

 phase of canorus, all the upper parts are bright rufous, with 

 dusky bars ; the primaries dusky-brown with rufous edges ; the 

 tail rufous, all the outer feathers having dark bars and a broader 

 subterminal one, with a white spot at the tip ; throat, neck, and 

 breast pale rufous, with dusky bars ; and the belly, flanks, and 

 tail-coverts, white, also with dusky cross-bars; tibial feathers 

 rufous-barred. 



In a more advanced state of the same plumage, the bars on the 

 head and rump disappear, and those that remain have a green gloss 

 ujion them. Under what circumstances this state of plumage takes 

 place is not known, and it would form an interesting inquiry for those 

 favorably situated for in-osecuting it. The rufous phase appears to 



