124 CUCULINA. 
feet small ; outer-toe capable of being directed either backwards 
or sideways. 
Genus, Cuculus. 
Bill rather small, broadish at the base, compressed moderately 
beyond, gently curved, and the culmen convex; tip obsoletely 
notched; nostrils basal, circular, with a raised tumid margin ; 
wings long, pointed ; the third quill usually longest, second and 
fourth nearly equal ; tail lengthened, rounded ; tarsus very short, 
feathered posteriorly, with transverse scuts in front; feet slender, 
short; feathers of the rump and upper tail-coverts long, thick 
set and rigid. 
Cuculus canorus, Lzn. 
199.—Jerdon’s Birds of India, Vol. I, p. 322; Butler, Guzerat ; 
Stray Feathers, Vol. III, p. 199; Deccan, Stray Feathers, 
Vol. IX, p. 887; Murray's Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 116; 
Swinhoe and Barnes, Central India ; Ibis, 1885, p. 63. 
THE CUCKOO. 
Length, 14; expanse, 26; wing, 8°75 to 9; tail, 7; tarsus, 0°8; 
bill at front, 0°78. 
Bill black, yellowish at base beneath, and at gape; irides 
yellow ; orbits deeper yellow ; legs yellow. 
Adult: head and upper parts ashy ; throat, underside of neck, 
and upper part of breast, pale ashy; lower part of breast and 
belly white, with narrow transverse, undulating black lines ; 
quills dusky, with a faint gloss of green; inner webs barred 
with oval white spots or incomplete bars; the two central 
feathers of the tail blackish, dashed with ashy, and tipped white ; 
the others black, with white spots on one or both webs, and 
the tip white; under tail-coverts white, with distinct arrow- 
shaped markings. 
The female has very generally a tawny-brown tinge on the 
upper parts; and the neck and breast of both sexes are often 
mingled with rufous, having some dusky-bars. 
The young bird is dusky-grey above with white or ferruginous 
bars; beneath white, with the bars close on the neck and _ breast, 
distant and narrower on the abdomen; irides blue-grey, after- 
wards brown ; they vary considerably in this state of plumage. 
The European Cuckoo is found throughout the district, but, 
excepting the hills, it is nowhere common and only occurs 
during the rains and cold weather. 
Cuculus poliocephalus, Lath. 
201.—Jerdon’s Birds of India, Vol. I, p. 324; Butler, Deccan ; 
Stray Feathers, Vol. IX, p. 388. 
THE SMALL CUCKOO. 
Length, 10 to 10°5; wing, 5°85; tail, 512; tarsus, 0°62; bill 
at front, 0°7. 
