CENTROPODIN &. 133 
Centropus maximus, Hume. 
217quint.—Murray’s Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 118. 
THE LaRGE Crow PHEASANT. 
Length, 19 to 20; wing, 9 to 10; tail, 10 to 105; bill at 
front, 1:25. 
Bill black ; irides crimson ; legs black. 
Head, neck, lower back, upper tail-coverts and entire under 
parts richly empurpled black, duller towards the vent ; feathers 
of the forehead bristly, and those on the neck and breast with 
spiny shafts; tail dusky-black, with a greenish gloss ; wings deep 
rufous-bay or dark red. 
Only found within our limits, in the Sind district ; its habits 
are similar to those of C. rufipennis. 
Centropus bengalensis, Gm. 
218.—C, viridis, Scop.—Jerdon’s Birds of India, Vol. I, p. 350, 
THE LESSER INDIAN COUCAL. 
Length, 15 ; wing, 6°5; tail, 8; tarsus, 1°5; bill at front, 1. 
Bill black ; irides red; legs plumbeous. 
Adult.—Head, hind-neck, upper tail-coverts, tail, and beneath, 
glossy green black; wings and back rufous, or chesnut, infus- 
cated at the tips of the wings, and often more or less so on the 
back, scapulars and tertiaries ; tail-coverts much elongated. 
Young birds are pale rufous above with broadish black bands, 
the rufous forming narrow bands on the upper tail-coverts and 
tail, and the black, narrow bands on the back and wings; the 
head and neck are streaked longitudinally, the feathers being 
dusky with a pale rufous centre; under-parts flavescent whitish, 
with only a few dusky specks and rays; bill pale yellow-horny. 
In another state, in the adult female, the general color is 
light rufous, more or less infuscated above, dingy yellowish-white 
below; the spinous shafts to the feathers of the head, neck, 
wing-coverts, and breast yellowish-white and showing conspi- 
cuously, being set off with blackish, which brings out the 
contrasts, and the feathers are more or less barred transversely, 
expecially the scapulars, back, and the long upper tail-coverts. 
In a further stage the feathers are black with yellowish-white 
shafts on the head, back, wing-coverts and breast, to a greater 
or lesser extent; and to this the fully adult plumage appears 
to succeed. 
Dr. Jerdon remarks that “the Small Indian Coucal is a’ 
somewhat rare bird, but spreads more or less through most parts 
of India,” and that he has had it from Central India, 
Genus, Taccocua, Lesson. 
Bill short or of a moderate length, much compressed, the 
culmen regularly arching; commissure and gonys straight or 
