CUCULIDJE. 



Coloration. Upper plumage throughout alternately barred with 

 rufous and blackish brown, the latter glossed with green ; on the 

 forehead the rufous is partly replaced by white ; wing-feathers 

 dark brown, the outer webs narrowly, the inner broadly indented 

 with rufous ; tail-feathers dark brown, tipped with white, margins 

 indented with rufous, the rufous edges increasing on the outer 

 feathers till the outermost are rufous with imperfect black bars 

 and a subtermiual brown band ; lower plumage throughout buffy 

 white, with numerous narrow dark brown cross-bars ; sides of head 

 and neck the same, the ear-coverts rufous and brown. In very 

 old birds the rufous on the upper parts is reduced and the colour 

 becomes darker. The young differ in no important particular from 

 adults. 



Upper mandible and tip of lower black, rest of lower greenish 

 yellow ; iris brown of different shades ; legs and feet brownish slaty 

 or greenish. 



Length about 9'5 ; tail 4'75 to 5'2 : wing 4-6 to 5 ; tarsus -7 ; 

 bill from gape I'l. Malay specimens (P. pravatus) are smaller, the 

 wing measuring 4 to 4-6 inches. 



Fig. 63. Head of P. sonnerati, }-. 



Distribution. A resident species, common in Ceylon and in the 

 forests near the Malabar coast, rare in the Bombay Konkan, and 

 very rare elsewhere in the Indian Peninsula and in the Western 

 Himalayas, though recorded from Mussooree, Kumaun, Manbhoom, 

 and Eaipur ; less rare in the Eastern Himalayas, but still far from 

 common, and ranging throughout Burma and the Malay Peninsula 

 to Sumatra, Borneo, and Java. 



Habits, <$fc. A shy bird with, according to Legge, a curious far- 

 sounding whistle, syllabized as whi, ivhip-ivhiwhip, and a peculiar 

 call-note, commencing in a low key, then suddenly changing to a 

 higher, and then dying away. This Cuckoo feeds chiefly on cater- 

 pillars. Eggs supposed to belong to it have been found in the nest 

 of Otocompsa fuscicaudata, measuring -82 by '62. 



Genus CHRYSOCOCCYX, Boie, 1827. 



This is a genus of small Cuckoos distinguished by the sexes 

 differing in plumage, and by the male exhibiting brilliant colours 

 with a metallic lustre. The structure presents few peculiarities ; 



