CUCULIN^. 



g THE EMEEALD CUCKOO. 



Length, 6'5 to 7; wing, 4'25 ; tail, 3; tarsus, 0*5; bill at 

 front, 0'6. 



Bill yellow, tipped dusky ; irides red brown ; feet reddish 

 cinereous. 



Above brilliant emerald-green with a rich golden gloss; beneath 

 white with cross bars of shining green ; tail, with the outer 

 feathers barred with white externally. 



Jerdon in his " Birds of India " states that this lovely Cuckoo 

 . has been procured rarely in Central India. 



GENUS, Coccystes, Goger. 



Head crested ; bill slender and cuculine, but more compressed, 

 slightly curving at first, suddenly bent down at the tip which 

 is entire; nostrils basal, lengthened and ovate, close to edge of 

 mandible ; wings moderate, slightly rounded ; third and fourth 

 quills sub-equal, or fourth quill longest; tail long graduated* 

 tarsus longer than in cucwlus, not feathered ; feathers of the 

 r ump soft. 



Coccystes jacobinus, Bodd. 



212. Coecystes melanoleucos, Gmel. Jerdon's Birds of India,, 

 Vol. I, p. 339 ; Butler, Guzerat ; Stray Feathers, Vol. Ill, 

 p. 461; Peccan, Stray Feathers, Vol. IX, p. 388 ; Murray's 



i Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 117 ; Swinhoe and Barnes, 

 Central India; Ibis, 1885, p. 63. 



THE PIED-CRESTED CUCKOO. 



Popiya, Hin. 



6 Length,. 13 ; expanse, 17*5 ^ wing, 575 ; tail, 7 ; tarsus, 0'98 ; 

 bill at front, 075 ; bill at gape, I'l. 



Bill black ; irides red-brown ; legs leaden-blue. 



Above, uniform black, with a greenish shine ; bases of the 

 primaries white, forming a conspicuous wing-spot ; all the tail- 

 feathers tipped white, broadly, except the central pair, which 

 are very narrowly tipped ; under -parts dull white ; in some, 

 especially the females, slightly tinged with fulvescent. 



The nestling plumage is dull black above, and fulvous be- 

 neath. 



The Pied-crested Cuckoo occurs as a monsoon visitant through- 

 out the .district, but is much more common in some places 

 than others ; for instance, at Mhow it literally swarms during 

 the rains, while at Neemuch it only occurs. as a straggler. 



Its eggs resemble somewhat those of 0. caudata, in whose 

 nests, as well as in those of M. terricolor and malcolmi, they 

 are generally deposited, but may be distinguished from the 

 former by their somewhat larger size and rounder shape, and 

 from those of the latter by being slightly smaller as well as 

 rounder. 



