(49) MACROPYGIA RUFIPENNIS Blyth. 
ANDAMAN CUCKOO-DOVE. 
(PLATE 25.) 
Macropygia rufipennis Blyth, J.AS.B., XV_ p. 371 (1846); id., Cat. 
B.M.A.S.B., p. 234, no. 1422; Ball, J.A.S.B., XXXIX p. 32; id. ib. 
XLI p. 287; id., Str. Feath., I p. 80; Hume, ib., Il p. 266; id. ib., 
VIII p. 110; id., Cat. no. 721, bis; Salvadori, Cat. B.M., XXI p. 344; 
Blanf., Avi. Brit. I., IV p. 50; Sharpe, Hand-List, I p. 73; Butler, 
J.B.N.H.S., XII p. 690; Osmaston, ib., XVII p. 489. 
Vernacular Names. None recorded. 
Description.—Adult male. Whole head and hind-neck chestnut-purple, 
chin and throat very pale rufous-white, upper-back dark brown, the feathers 
minutely stippled with pale rufous; in some specimens, not quite adult, these 
frecklings develop into small bars; the remainder of the upper-parts dark 
brown, becoming more chestnut on the upper tail-coverts. Central rectrices 
chestnut-brown, the outermost bright chestnut with an oblique subterminal 
dusky band; lesser wing-coverts and scapulars brown, more or less edged 
with chestnut, median wing-coverts still more distinctly edged with chestnut ; 
greater wing-coverts and quills dark brown, the primaries more or less 
cinnamon on the inner webs, and innermost secondaries rufescent-brown on 
the inner webs. Whole of the lower surface light rufous-brown, darkest 
on the breast, and palest on the abdomen, barred throughout with narrow 
wavy lines of black; under tail-coverts, under aspect of the wings, and 
axillaries ferruginous-red ; under aspect of tail pale grey-brown, the chestnut 
on the upper surface of the tail feathers showing through strongly and the 
dark bar also visible, but to a less extent. 
Colours of soft parts. ‘‘ Legs dull pinkish-red in front, bright but pale 
pink behind, soles whitish, claws horny ; bill dull horny-red, tinged near gape 
with pink; irides violet”? (Davidson). 
Weight, according to Davison, from 8 to 10 oz. 
“Tris light blue, encircled with a ring of carmine; orbital ring leaden- 
blue; bill and legs purplish-pink” (Wardlaw Ramsay). 
Measurements. “Total length about 15.5 in.; wing 7.3 to 7.7 in.; 
tail 8.0 in.; bill 0.9 in.; tarsus 1.0 in.” (Salvadori). 
The series in the British Museum gives a wing-length from 7.1 in. 
( = 180.3 mm.) to 7.6 in. (= 193 mm.) ; billat front about 0.5 in. (= 12.7 mm.) 
and from gape 0.9 in. (= 22 mm.). 
Richmond gives the total length as 394 to 425.5 mm. 
Adult female. General colour like that of the male, but the stipplings 
on the back are very much more pronounced, and nearly always developed 
into small bars, which, in all but very old birds, are continued to some extent 
on the lower-back. In practically every bird of this sex a certain amount of 
black mottling shows through the chestnut feathers of the head. The lower 
