CUCULIN^I. 125 



Male : upper plumage ashy, slightly glossed with green on 

 the back and upper tail-coverts ; quills brown, also with a green 

 gloss, and numerous close large white spots ; tail deep ashy, 

 almost black, with large white spots on the middle of each 

 feather on the edge of the inner webs, and at the tip ; beneath 

 the chin and throat are pale ashy, with some rusty about the, 

 breast ; the lower parts white, with rather narrow distant bars ; 

 under tail-coverts spotless. 



Many adults have the upper parts fine rufous-bay, spotless on 

 the forehead, sides of neck, and rump, but elegantly barred with 

 dusky across the scapulars, wings and tail, and faintly on the 

 crown, hind-neck, and interscapulars ; throat, foreneck, and 

 breast, whitish along the middle, stained with rufous laterally, 

 and with dark bars more or less distinct ; the rest of the lower 

 parts broadly barred, as also are the tail-coverts. 



The Small Cuckoo has been obtained in various parts of the 

 Deccan, but is rare ; it has not been recorded from elsewhere 

 within our district. 



Cuculus sonnerati, Lath. 



202. Jerdon's Birds of India, Vol. I, p. 325 ; Butler, Deccan ; 



Stray Feathers, Vol. IX, p. 388. 



THE BANDED BAY CCJCKOO. 



Length, 10 ; wing, 5 ; tail, 5 ; tarsus, 0'6 ; bill at front, 07. 



Above greenish-dusky, numerously crossed barred with rufous 

 (which color, 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 under-parts, 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 colored like the back, and the 

 frontal feathers are white at the base, showing conspicuously 

 just over the bill. 



The young are more coarsely barred than adults, with pale 

 rufescent on a blackish ground, and the breast is white, banded 

 with dusky, and aged individuals 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. 



The Banded Bay Cuckoo occurs sparingly in various parts of 

 the Deccan and South Mahratta country, but only as a seasonal 

 visitant. It does not occur elsewhere within our limits. 



Cuculus micropterus, Gould. 



203. Jerdon's Birds of India, Vol. I, p. 326 ; Butler, Deecan ; 

 Stray Feathers, Vol. IX, p. 388. 



