THE BANDED BAY CUCKOO. 107 



491. CUCULUS SONNERATII. 

 THE BANDED BAY CUCKOO. 



Cuculus sonneratii, Lath. Ind. Orn. i. p. 215 ; Jerd. B. 2nd. i. p. 325 ; Wald. 

 Trun*. '/<>!. Soc. viii. p. 55; El. B. Burni. p. 80; Anders. Yunnan Exped. p. 687 : 

 Hume $ Duo. S. F. vi. p. 15(3; Legye, Birds Ceylon, p. 233; Hume, S. F. viii. 

 p. 88; Fiote/, S. F. ix. p. 54. 



Description. "Above greenish dusky, numerously cross-barred with 

 rufous (which colour, indeed, may be said to predominate), except on the 

 coverts of the primaries ; quills dusky rufous on the edge of the outer web, 

 pale internally; tail rufous, with a broad dusky bar near the end; the 

 outer webs nearly dusky and the tip white, and the inner webs with 

 narrow bars ; the whole underparts, from the throat, white, very faintly 

 tinged with fulvous on the flanks and marked with numerous narrow dusky 

 cross bars ; sides of head and neck also white, similarly barred ; but the 

 ear-coverts are coloured like the back, and frontal feathers are white at the 

 base, showing conspicuously just over the bill. 



" The young are more closely barred than adults, with pale rufescent 

 on a blackish ground, and the breast is white banded with dusky ; and 

 aged indiyiduals have the back and wings very faintly barred, the tail with 

 the central feathers nearly all black, the edges scolloped with rufous and 

 the outer feathers with dusky ." (Jerdon.) 



Irides brown; legs greenish grey; bill dusky; orbits grey. (Vidal.) 



Length 9'5 inches, tail 4-5, wing 4-8, tarsus *7, bill from gape 1*1. 



As I have never procured this species in Burmah, and specimens are 

 somewhat rare in English collections, I have preferred to give Dr. Jerdon's 

 careful description. 



The Banded Bay Cuckoo was obtained at Thayetmyo by Capt. Wardlaw 

 Ramsay, and it is recorded from Tenasserim by Mr. Blyth. It is 

 apparently rare in Burmah. 



It extends through the Indo-Burmese countries, and is found over a 

 great part of the peninsula of India with Ceylon. 



Nothing is known regarding its nidification ; but, like other true 

 Cuckoos, it probably lays in the nests of other birds. 



C. pravatus from Malayana is similar, but constantly smaller, the wing 

 seldom exceeding 4*4 inches in length. Mr. Blyth states (/. c.) that 

 C. poliocephalus can hardly fail to occur in Burmah; it has not, however, 

 been yet recorded from this country, and I consequently do not enter it 

 in my work. It is of an ashy colour above ; the chin and throat are pale 

 ashy, and the remainder of the lower plumage is white barred with dusky ; 

 and the wing is about 5'5 inches in length. 



