HIEEOCOCCYX. 215 



dark ashy ; throat and front of neck white, sparingly streaked with 

 ashy ; breast, abdomen, and flanks ferruginous, streaked with pale 

 ashy and frequently mixed with white ; vent and under tail -co verts 

 white. 



In the young birds the upper plumage, sides of head and neck, 

 chin, throat, and upper breast are very dark brown, with narrow 

 rufous edges to the feathers, the quills are barred on both webs 

 with rufous ; tail as in adults ; the breast, abdomen, and flanks 

 white with broad black spots. The blackish brown of the throat 

 and breast is soon lost, and the upper parts become barred with 

 rufous, as in the young of H. varius and H. sparverioides, and there 

 is the same gradual change to the adult plumage. At no time are 

 there any cross-bands on the abdomen. 



Upper mandible horny black, lower mandible and around nostrils 

 pale green, gape greenish yellow ; iris orange-red ; eyelids, legs, 

 feet, and claws bright yellow. 



Length about 11-5 ; tail 5-6 ; wing 67 to 7'4 ; tarsus 75 ; bill 

 from gape 1*2. 



Distribution. The Himalayas as far west as Nepal, and through- 

 out Assam and Burma to the Malay Peninsula, but not apparently 

 in the Malay Archipelago, where this species is replaced by 

 H. fugax, a form with a larger bill and the bands on the tail as 

 in H. varius. 



Habits, <$fc. Apparently a resident species. Nothing is known 

 of its breeding except that an egg, extracted from the oviduct of a 

 female by Mandelli on June 5th, was olive-brown and measured 

 -89 by -64. 



1111. Hierococcyx nanus. The Small Hawk-Cuckoo. 



Hierococcyx nanus, Hume, S. F. v, p. 490 ; id. Cat. no. 205 bis ; 

 Hume $ Dav. S. F. vi, pp. 157, 502; A. Mull. J.f. Orn. 1882, 

 p. 405 ; Oates, B. B. ii, p. 110; Sharpe, Ibis, 1890, p. 11 ; Shelley, 

 Cat. B. M. xix, p. 238. 



Coloration. Head above and nape dark brown to blackish ashy. 

 A well-marked dark grey stripe from the anterior lower border of 

 the eye down the cheek, separated by the whitish lower ear- 

 coverts from the dark grey side of the head behind the eye ; above 

 this again, better marked in some specimens than in others, a line 

 of white or rufous feathers forms a border to the crown ; a rufes- 

 cent collar round the hind-neck ; rest of upper parts brown, more 

 or less barred with rufous ; quills with large bars of buff on inner 

 webs, the whole inner webs near the base rufescent buff. Tail 

 greyish brown, tipped white and with equidistant black bands, the 

 last the broadest, the others subequal. Lower surface rufescent 

 white, with dark brown shaft-stripes. 



It is doubtful whether the adult is known, the plumage above 

 described resembling the immature dress of other species. 



Upper mandible and tip of lower dull black ; lower mandible 

 and base of upper greenish yellow ; irides brown ; eyelids, legs, 

 feet, and claws orange-yellow (Davison). 



