356 Mr. E. W. Gates on the European ^^|{ 



inouit in the secoud autumn brings them all up to the one 

 level of the fully adult plumage. The changes, however, 

 that take place between the first spring and the second 

 autumn are trivial compared to those that take place from 

 the time of birth up to the first spring, in other words during 

 the first winter. 



The adults of the three Indian Cuculi are not always to be 

 discriminated with certainty. There are some specimens 

 which might be relegated indifferently to one or other of 

 the two species between which they lie. Such specimens, 

 however, are not very numerous. The following Key will, 

 I think, suffice in most cases for the identification of the 

 adults : — 



a. Wing measuriug between 8 and 9 inches in length ; 



bars on the lowei- plumage narrow, wavy, inter- 

 rupted canorus. 



b. Wing measuring between G'5 and 7 "8 inches in 



length; bars on the lower plumage broader, 

 straighter, continuous striatus *. 



c. Wing seldom exceeding 6 inches in length; the 



lower plumage,richly coloured poliucephalus. 



The females of all three species are generally distinguish- 

 able from the males by the presence of a rufous band across 

 the breast. 



Turning to the young, we find that in Cuculus canorus 

 there are two well-defined stages of plumage, the brown and 

 the rufous. 



The nestling is of a dark brown above, indistinctly barred 

 with rufous, and each feather also indistinctly edged with 

 white ; there is a well-defined white nuchal spot. The lower 

 plumage is barred with black and white, the bars being of 

 about equal thickness on the abdomen, but the black ones 

 being broader than the white ones on the throat and breast. 

 Before the nestling is quite fully fledged the white margins 

 of the feathers of the upper plumage become very much 

 reduced in size, and the rufous bars on the same parts disappear 



* This name and the next are provisional, as I have not yet gone into the 

 question of the exact names these Cuckoos should bear. 



