264 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 
TACCOCUA LESCHENAULT! (Blanford, Vol. III., p. 237 
Legge, p. 266). 
The Sirkeer Cuckoo. 
Description.—Upper plumage olive or sandy brown, with a 
gray-green gloss on the back and wings; the shafts of the 
feathers on the head, neck, mantle, and chest are glossy black 
and spiny. The middle tail feathers are of the same colour 
as the back, the others blackish with broad white tips. The 
chin and throat are pale buff or whitish ; fore-neck and upper 
breast darker and grayish or brownish ; remainder of lower 
plumage rufous, and much darker in some birds than in others. 
Bill cherry-red with a yellowish tip ; iris reddish-brown ; 
feet lead colour. 
Length about 16; wing 6°1; tail 8°60; tarsus 1°6; bill 
from gape 1°4. 
Distribution Found mainly in the tract between the 
Haputale hills and Hambantota, also on the eastern slopes 
of the Uva and Central Province ranges and the park country 
at their foot. Fairly widely distributed in the Indian Penin- 
sula, but nowhere common. 
Habits, &c.—A shy bird, found chiefly in the long grass of the 
patanas and park country. It feeds almost entirely on the 
ground. In South India the birds breed in March and April. 
The nest is a loose cup of twigs lined with green leaves. 
The three chalky-white eggs measure about 1°39 by 1°07. 
CENTROPUS SINENSIS (Blanford, Vol. III., p. 239). 
CENTROPUS RUFIPENNIS (Legge, p. 260). 
The Coucal, Crow Pheasant, or Jungle Crow. 
Description.—The entire plumage, except the wings, wing 
coverts, and scapulars, black with a metallic gloss, which is 
mainly purple on the hind-neck, back, and breast, and bluish- 
green on the tail. The wing coverts, scapulars, and, in some 
specimens, the inter-scapulars are chestnut. The tips of the 
quills are dusky, the wing lining black. 
Young birds are duller ; the upper parts are marked with 
bars and spots of rufous or white ; the wings and coverts are 
barred with black, the tail is dark brown with narrow whitish 
bars; the lower parts dull black with grayish-white bars. 
