PICARIAN BIRDS AND PARROTS OF CEYLON. 255 
PENTHOCERYX SONNERATI (Blanford, Vol. IIT., p. 219). 
CUCULUS SONNERATI (Legge, p. 233). 
The Banded Bay Cuckoo. 
Description.—In this species the adult plumage remains 
barred, and resembles that of the immature bird. Upper 
plumage dark brown, lustred with green and barred with 
rufous ; forehead more or less mottled with white ; wing quills 
dark brown, the outer webs with a narrow rufous margin, and 
the inner with a broad rufous white border; middle tail 
feathers brown with indented rufous edges ; the other feathers 
have white tips, and the rufous borders increase, the outer- 
most feathers being mainly rufous with irregular brown bars. 
The lower parts from chin to tail coverts, together with the 
sides of the head and neck, are buffy-white with many narrow, 
wavy crossbars of dark brown ; the ear coverts are darker. 
Bill black above and at the tip, greenish-yellow underneath ; 
iris brownish or yellowish-red ; legs and feet brownish-slaty, 
or bluish-lead colour. 
Length about 10; wing 5; tail 4°85; tarsus *7 ; bill from 
gape 1-1. Females rather smaller : wing 4°75. 
Distribution. Resident in Ceylon ; found almost all over 
the Island ; commonest in the Eastern Province, but nowhere 
numerous. Mr. Stuart Baker informs me that the Ceylonese 
form is a good sub-species, recognizable at a glance from 
typical P. sonnerati, a reddish form, which occurs in India and 
Burma, by its almost blackish colouration. He has done me 
the honour of naming the Ceylon sub-species P. sonnerati 
waiti. Allied sub-species occur in Java and Malaya. 
Habits, &c.—Frequents the edges of tanks where there are 
dead trees, also chenas and the park country. It isa shy bird, 
keeping to the tops of trees. It is noisy in the mornings and 
evenings, giving out a curious whistle, which Legge represents 
by “ whi-whip, whi-whip—whi-whip, whi-whip.” It has also 
a call note, beginning in a low key, changing to a higher, and 
then dying away. 
In India this Cuckoo is reported as laying its eggs in the 
nests of the Southern Red-whiskered Bulbul (O. fuscicaudata), 
a species not found in Ceylon ; also in the nests of the Small 
