12G CUCULIN.E, 



* 



THE INDIAN CUCKOO. 



Length, 12 to 12'5 ; expanse, 23 ; wing, 7'5 ; tail, 575 ; tarsus, 

 075 ; bill at front, 0'96. 



Bill blackish, yellow at the base beneath, and at the gape ; irides 

 pale dusky, or yellowish-brown ; orbits light wax-yellow ; legs 

 yellow. 



Upper parts darkish-ashy, pure on the head ; throat and breast 

 grey ; abdomen white, with - broad and tolerably distant dark- 

 brown bars ; quills brown, the inner webs with wider bars or 

 spots than those of C. canorus ; tail concolorous with the body, 

 or brownish-ashy j a broad dark band at the end, narrowly tipped 

 with white ; in some with a few white spots, successively more 

 developed on the outer tail-feathers. 



In old birds the color above is deep-ashy ; but in those only 

 once moulted the hue is a bronzed ash-brown, with the head and 

 neck grey, and some slight traces of rufous on the sides of the 

 neck and wings. The young are much mottled with blackish and 

 white, especially on the head, neck, and back ; the quills and tail 

 have rufous bars and tips ; but they have much less rufous than 

 the young of 0. canorus, and are much less barred. 



The Indian Cuckoo is common along the Sahyadri range and 

 adjacent forests ; it has been obtained from other parts of the 

 Deccan and South Mahratta country, and is not uncommon in the 

 jungles on the Vindhian Range, but Major Butler did not meet 

 with it in Northern Guzerat, nor has it been recorded from 

 Sind, 



GENUS, Hierococcyx, Muller. 



Bill stouter, deeper and wider, than in cuculu s ; wing shorter ; 

 the fourth quill longest, and the fifth about equal to the second ; 

 tail nearly even, broad, with distinct dark bars. 



Hierococcyx varius, Vahl. 



205. Jerdon's Birds of India, Vol. I, p. 329 ; Butler, Guzerat ; 



Stray Feathers, Vol. Ill, p. 205 ; Deccan, Stray Feathers, Vol. 



IX, p. 388 ; Swinhoe and Barnes, Central India ; Ibis, 1885, 



p. 63. 



THE COMMON HAWK CUCKOO. 



Length, 13 '4 f expanse, 22*1 ; wing, 7 '5~; tail, 7 ; tarsus, 0'8 ; 

 ill at front, 0'83 ; bill from gape, 1/2. 



Bill black on the culmen and tip, yellow beneath ; orbits 

 orange-yellow ; irides dull gamboge-yellow ; legs and feet yellow. 



Upper parts uniform ash-grey ; the winglet and coverts of the 

 primaries darker ; foreneck and breast pale rufous, each feather 

 light grey in the centre ; belly and flanks white, barred with ad- 

 joining lines of grey and rufous, the white hardly visible exterior- 

 ly, from the overlapping of the feathers ; thighs, vent, and lower- 

 coverts, pure white, the first a little barred ; throat grey, and some 

 white at the base of the bill and sides of the throat ; tail grey, 



