51 



CHINESE COUCAL. 

 (Polophilus sinensis.) 



P. splendide niger ; alls ritfis nigrofasciatis ; abdomine,femoribus 

 rectricibusque nigricantibus albofasciatis. 



Brilliant black Coucal ; wings rufous barred with black ; abdo- 

 men, thighs, and tail-coverts dusky barred with white. 



Cuculus ^Egyptius. ]8. Lath. Ind. Orn. 1. 213. 17. 



Egyptian Cuckow. Lath. Syn. 2. 523. 1(5. 6. Lath. Sup. 100. 

 16. B. 



THIS species of Coucal, which is described by 

 Dr. Latham, is about nineteen inches and a half 

 in length : beak one inch and a half long, strong, 

 curved and black ; nostrils nearly covered with 

 short feathers : head and neck dusky brown ; the 

 fore part, as far as the breast, marked down the 

 shafts with indistinct pale spots and bars ; hind 

 part plain : wing-coverts deep rufous, obscurely 

 barred with dusky : quills with about twenty al- 

 ternate bars of rufous and dusky : tail ten inches 

 long, wedge-shaped, the exterior feathers only half 

 the length of the middle ones, and black barred 

 with oblique dusky white lines : belly, thighs, 

 upper and under tail-coverts, dusky, striated with 

 numerous white lines : legs short ; the claw on 

 the inner hind toe straight and about one inch in 

 length. Said to inhabit China, 



