CUCULINA. 127 
tipped with faint rufous, and finally whitish, having a broad dusky 
- subterminal band, and five other narrower and undulating zigzag 
bands (one near the base) composed of a dusky bar, then a whit- 
ish one adjoining, with some traces of rufous ; quills barred 
with white on their inner webs for the basal two-thirds of 
their length. 
The young bird hasthe upper plumage browner and rufous- 
barred ; and the lower parts are whitish, tinged with rusty, and 
with longitudinal brown drops. In older birds the spots are longi- 
tudinal on the neck and breast, transverse and arrow-shaped on 
the abdomen. . 
With the exception of Sind, the Hawk Cuckoo is generally 
spread throughout the district ; but there are parts of the Deccan 
where it is absent or only occurs as a somewhat rare straggler. 
Genus, Cacomantis, Miller. 
Of small size; plumage variable, grey or dusky above ; lower 
plumage not barred in the normal adult state; the tarsi less 
plumed externally than in cuculus. 
Cacomantis passerinus, Vahi. 
208.—Polyphasia nigra, apud Blyth—Jerdon’s Birds of India, 
Vol. I, p. 333; Butler, Guzerat; Stray Feathers, Vol. III, 
p. 461 ; Deccan, Stray Feathers, Vol. IX, p. 388. 
THE INDIAN PLAINTIVE Cuckoo. 
Length, 9; expanse, 14; wing, 4°5; tail, 4°5; tarsus, 0°6; bill 
at front, 0°6. 
Bill blackish, red at base and gape; irides rusty-red ; feet red- 
dish-yellow. 
Adult, uniform dark-ashy above, with more or less of a green 
gloss; beneath pale ashy; vent and under tail-coverts pure 
white; quills dusky, with a broad white band on the inner web of 
each feather; tail blackish ; the inner webs banded with white 
(except the middle pair), and all tipped white. 
A common phase of this species in South India is dusky-cine- 
reous, almost blackish above, with a greenish gloss beneath the 
same, but less glossed; tail as in the last, but darker and with 
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 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, witha white spot at the tip; 
throat, neck and -breast, pale rufous, with dusky bars; and the 
