1772 THE PIC A RI AN BIRDS 



on. The general color of the coucals is red and black, but some of them are 

 entirely black, while the Australian pheasant cuckoo (Centropus phasianellus) is 

 banded with brown and buff. The young birds of all the other species have a 

 similar kind of plumage, and it is said that some species also possess a winter 

 garb or " seasonal plumage." If this is the case, it lasts for a very short period. 

 The Indian coucal ( C. sinensis] is a species of large .size, measuring nearly two 

 feet in length, and black in color, with the mantle and wings chestnut, and 

 having a blue gloss on the head and a green gloss on the under parts. It is found 

 all over India and Ceylon, and, like the rest of the genus, has a curious howling 

 note, whoot, whoot, whoot, whoot, followed after a pause of four or five seconds by 

 kurook, kurook, kurook, kurook. The nest is generally domed, and is a rough 

 structure, described by Mr. Hume as a "hollow, oblate spheroid, some eighteen 

 inches in external diameter, and from six to eight inches in height, with a large 

 hole on one side, from the entrance of which to the back of the nest inside may be 

 twelve inches. This, of course, is not large enough to admit the whole bird, so 

 that, when sitting, its tail is commonly seen projecting outside the nest. The latter 

 is placed at varying heights above the ground, in the centre of thick, thorny 

 bushes or trees. It is usually made of dry twigs, lined with a few green leaves, 

 but all kinds of odds and ends are at times incorporated into the fabric. Oc- 

 casionally quite different materials are made use of, the nest consisting almost 

 wholly of leaves, rushes, or coarse grass. ' ' 



. , With these birds we come to another subfamily, known as the 



Ram Cuckoos 



bush cuckoos (Phcenicoph<zin<z), and including upward of sixteen 



genera. Their bright metallic plumage, and short, rounded wings, show 

 that they are resident in the countries where they live, and are not migratory 

 like the long-winged cuckoos. They are mostly Indian and Malayan, but one 

 genus (Ceuthmochares) is African; while two genera (Saurothera and Hyetornis) 

 belong to the New World. With the exception of Coua, which is a Madagascar 

 form, they have all some bright colors on the face or bill, the latter being in 

 many of the genera parti-colored and brilliant. The rain cuckoos in the West 

 Indies are only found inhabiting the Greater Antilles and the Bahamas. They 

 attain to a size of eighteen or twenty inches, are mostly of an ashy-brown color, 

 with rufous wings, with white-tipped tail feathers, these having a black bar before 

 the tip. The Jamaican species is a bird of retiring habits, generally sitting im- 

 movable in a dull and sluggish manner, but on alighting in a tree it "traverses 

 the branches with facility by a succession of vigorous jumps, when it appears active 

 enough." The nest is placed high on a tree, and is a loose, flat structure of twigs, 

 the eggs being chalky white. In India and the Malayan countries there occurs an 

 assemblage of genera of bush cuckoos, of which the best known are the malkohas 

 (Rhopodytes). These birds are met with in gardens, thin tree jungles, and second- 

 ary scrub, being and having a marvelous capacity for making their way through 

 dense cover. The notes of the malkohas seem to vary considerably, being described 

 as a "cat-like chuckle" in one species, in another as a "hoarse chatter, much 

 like that of a magpie," while another of the malkohas has a "cat-like mew." 

 These cuckoos build their own nests, and lay white eggs. 



