378 MANUAL OF PHILIPPINE BIRDS. 



340. EUDYNAMY8 HONORATA (Linnaeus). 

 INDIAN KOEL. 



Cuculus honoratus LINNJEUS, Syst. Nat. ed. 12, (1766), 1, 169. 



Eudynamis honorata SHELLEY, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1891), 19, 316; 

 BLANFOED, Fauna Brit. Ind. Bds. (1895), 3, 228, fig. 65 (head) ; SHABPE, 

 Hand-List, (1900), 2, 164; GATES and REID, Cat. Birds' Eggs (1903), 

 3, 121 ; MCGREGOR and WORCESTER, Hand-List ( 1906), 62. 



Palawan (Platen, Steere Exp.). Malay and Indian Peninsulas, Burmese Prov- 

 inces, Andaman Islands, Ceylon, China, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Flores. 



"Adult male. Entire plumage black, very strongly glossed with bluish 

 green. 'Iris crimson ; bill pale- bluish green, dusky round the nostrils ; 

 legs and feet leaden blue.' (Legge.) Length, 386; culmen, 30; wing, 

 93; tail, 20; tarsus, 30. 



"Adult female. Above blackish brown, with an olive gloss; crown, 

 sides of the head, and back of the neck very strongly mottled with broad 

 white shaft-stripes, which are generally shaded toward the forehead with 

 rufous; back and wing-coverts spotted with white; quills, upper tail- 

 coverte, and tail barred with white; beneath white, feathers of the throat 

 with broad black sides, remainder of the under surface of the body and 

 the under wing-coverts with rather broad black angular bars; under 

 surface of the quills brown, partially barred with white. 'Iris crimson ; 

 legs and feet plumbeous; bill greenish gray, gape pinkish flesh-color/ 

 (Butler.) Length, 406; culmen, 30; wing, 190; tail, 198; tarsus, 33. 



"Nestling. Entirely greenish black like the adult male. 



"The scarcely full-grown birds have more or less marking on the tail- 

 feathers and the under surface of the quills, and have numerous fulvous 

 spots on the body-feathers. In more than one specimen the breast and 

 abdomen are thickly mottled with buff markings. 



"There seems to me to be no absolute uniformity in the color of the 

 young birds, and some are much more spotted than others. If Mr. 

 Whitehead's surmise is correct, that the young female is also black like 

 the male, then it is possible that the less spotted nestlings are males, 

 which remain almost uniform till they take on the adult plumage after 

 their first molt, while the feathers are even more mottled, foreshadowing 

 the spotted dress which they are about to assume. The plumage of the 

 adult female also varies, and very old birds appear to me to grow hoary, 

 while the yellowish or reddish tinge on the head and throat may be 

 considered as sure signs of youth." (Shelley.) 



* "Whitehead insists, Ibis (1890), 46, that the Palawan species is E. 

 mindanensis, and not E. malayana (honorata). Blasius, however, seems 

 to think that he found both species among Dr. Platen's birds. Steere 

 identified the specimens secured by us in 1897 as E. malayana. We 

 secured no additional material on our present trip." (Bourns and Wor- 

 cester MS.) 



