PENTHOCERYX. 219 



Length about 9; tail 4-2 to 5'5 ; wing 4-3; tarsus *75; bill 

 from gape '95. 



Distribution. Two specimens were obtained by Hume from 

 Raipur ; no other occurrences of this species have been recorded 

 from the Indian Peninsula (one is labelled Madras in the British 

 Museum, but evidently by mistake). This Cuckoo is found about 

 Calcutta, throughout Eastern Bengal, Assam, and the hills to the 

 southward, the Eastern Himalayas from Nepal, also in Burma, 

 Southern China, and the Malay Peninsula and islands, including 

 the Philippines. 



Habits, $c. The Rufous-bellied Cuckoo is found chiefly in brush- 

 wood and about clearings. It has a less plaintive call than C. pas- 

 serinus and is a very noisy bird. The eggs have not been identified 

 with certainty ; Captain Feilden found what he took for them at 

 Thayetmyo in the nests of Tailor-birds. 



Genus PENTHOCERYX, Cabanis, 1862. 



This genus resembles Cacomantis in structure and size, the only 

 structural distinctions being that the bill is much stouter and 

 broader up to the tip, which is blunt when seen from above, and 

 that the tail-feathers become narrower behind instead of remaining 

 of the same breadth. The wing is shaped as in Cacomantis, the 

 primaries only exceeding the secondaries by one-third the length. 

 But the present form is distinguished from all other true Cuckoos 

 by undergoing no change of plumage and by retaining in the adult 

 stage a barred livery that in the other genera is confined to the 

 young. This appears to me a stronger reason for adopting Cabanis's 

 genus than the slight structural distinctions mentioned ; but I 

 think that the only species of the present group, if not classed 

 separately, should be referred to Cacomantis rather than to Cuculus. 



1114. Penthoceryx sonnerati. The Banded Bay Cuckoo. 



Cuculus sonneratii, Latham, Ind. Om. i, p. 215 (1790) ; Blyth, Cat. 



p. 72; Layard, A. M. N. H. (2) xiii, p. 452; Jerdon, B. I. i, 



p. 325; Blyth, Ibis, 18(56, p. 360; Holdsworth, P. Z. S. 1872, 



p. 430 ; Walden, Tr. Z. S. viii, p. 65 ; Blyth fy Wald. Birds Burm. 



p. 80 ; Fairbank, S. F. iv, p. 255 ; Hume # Dav. S. F. vi, p. 156 ; 



Anderson, Yunnan Exped., Aves, p. 587 ; Hume, S. F. vii, p. 207 ; 



id. Cat. no. 202 ; Legge, Birds Ceyl. p. 233 ; Vidal, S. F. ix, p. 54 ; 



Butler, ibid. p. 388 ; Gates, B. B. ii, p. 107 ; id. in Hume's N. fy E. 



2nd ed. ii, p. 382 ; Barnes, Birds Bom. p. 125 ; Shelley, Cat. B. M. 



xix, p. 262. 

 Cuculus pravata, Horsf. Tr. Linn. Soc. xiii, p. 179 (1821) ; Strickland, 



J. A. S. B. xiii, p. 390. 



Cuculus venustus, Jerdon, Madr.Jour. L. S. xiii, pt. 2, p. 141 (1844). 

 Polyphasia sonnerati, Horsf. $ M. Cat. ii, p. 699. 

 Penthoceryx sonnerati, Cab. fy Heine, Mus. Hein. iv, p. 16 ; Walden, 



Ibis, 1872, p. 367. 

 Ololygon tenuirostris, apud Hume, S. F. ii, p. 472 ; iii, p. 80 ; nee 



Cuculus tenuirostris, Gray. 

 Basha katti pitta, Tel. ; Punchikoha, Cinghalese. 



