208 CUCULID^E. 



When adult similar to C. canorus, except that the upper parts 

 are much darker, pure blackish ashy ; the lower parts are generally 

 pale buff with the black bands broader and more regular, and the 

 edge of the wing is pure white. The size is always smaller and 

 the bill a little stronger. The young pass through two stages, in 

 neither of which is there a white nuchal spot. 



In the first stage the upper plumage is blackish brown, the 

 feathers margined with white ; chin and throat almost entirely 

 black ; rest of the lower parts white, broadly banded with black. 

 In the second stage the whole upper plumage with the tail is 

 blackish barred with chestnut, the lower banded white and black, 

 throat and breast tinged with rufous. The transition from each 

 stage to the next is gradual, and every intermediate plumage may 

 be found. 



Upper mandible and tip of lower horny green, rest- of lower 

 yellowish horny ; iris, feet, and gape yellow. Young birds have the 

 iris brown. 



Length about 12 ; tail 6 ; wing 6-6 to 7'8 ; tarsus 75 ; bill 

 from gape 1'15. 



Distribution. During the breeding -season this Cuckoo is found 

 in various parts of Eastern Asia, from the Himalayas to Siberia. 

 It has also been shot in the cold season at Lucknow and Jodhpur, 

 and in May in Fatehgarh, but is rare in India south of the Hima- 

 layas *. It is more common in Burma, the Andaman s and Nico- 

 bars, and throughout the Malay Peninsula, ranging to New Guinea 

 and Australia. 



Habits, #c. The ordinary call of this bird in the breeding season, 

 which begins later than that of C. canorus, is of four syllables, and, 

 according to Jerdon, resembles that of the Hoopoe repeated, hoot- 

 hoot-hoot-hoot, with a higher note at the commencement, only 

 heard when the bird is very near. Hume (S. F. xi, p. 70) gives a 

 somewhat different account, but Jerdon's statement has been con- 

 firmed by other observers. According to Swinhoe's observations 

 in Formosa and Seebohm's in Siberia, C. saturatus also utters a 

 monosyllabic note, but this has not been noticed in India. The 

 breeding-season is in June, and the eggs, in the Himalaya, are 

 commonly laid in the nest of Trochalopterum lineatum. An egg 

 taken from a female shot in Kashmir is white, sparsely speckled 

 with olive-brown and purplish grey, and measures -89 by -6. 

 According to Captain Hutton, the young Cuckoo, after it leaves 

 the nest, is fed by the adults, he having shot one of the latter in 

 the act. 



1106. Cuculus poliocephalus. The Small Cuckoo. 



? Cuculus intermedius, Vahl, Skriv. Nat. Selsk. iv, p. 58 (1789). 

 Cuculus poliocephalus, Latham, Ind. Orn. i, p. 214 (1790) ; 



* Davison (S. F. x, p. 359), states that it occurs in the Wynaad, but I have 

 elsewhere (P. Z. S. 1893, p. 318) shown that there must, I think, have been a 

 mistake. 



