CENTROPODIN^E, 133 



Centropus maximus, Hume. 



2l7quint. Murray's Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 118. 

 THE LARGE CROW PHEASANT. 



Length, 19 to 20; wing, 9 to 10; tail, 10 to 10'5 ; bill at 

 front, 1-25. 



Bill black ; irides crimson ; legs black. 



Head, neck, lower back, upper tail-coverts and entire under 

 parts richly empurpled black, duller towards the vent ; feathers 

 of the forehead bristly, and those on the neck and breast with 

 spiny shafts ; tail dusky-black, with a greenish gloss ; wings deep 

 rufous-bay or dark red. 



Only found within our limits, in the Sind district ; its habits 

 are similar to those of G. rufipennis. 



Centropus bengalensis, Gm. 



218. G. viridis, Scop.- Jerdon's Birds of India, Vol. I, p. 350. 

 THE LESSER INDIAN COUCAL. 



Length, 15 ; wing, 6*5 ; tail, 8 ; tarsus, T5 ; bill at front, 1. 



Bill black ; irides red ; legs plumbeous, 



Adult. Head, hind-neck, upper tail-coverts, tail, and beneath, 

 glossy green black ; wings and back rufous, or chesnut, infus-* 

 cated at the tips of the wings, and often more or less so on the 

 back, scapulars and tertiaries ; tail-coverts much elongated. 



Young birds are pale rufous above with broadish black bands, 

 the rufous forming narrow bands on the upper tail-coverts and 

 tail, and the black, narrow bands on the back and wings ; the 

 head and neck are streaked longitudinally, the feathers being 

 dusky with a pale rufous centre ; under-parts flavescent whitish, 

 with only a few dusky specks and rays ; bill pale yellow-horny. 



In another state, in the adult female, the general color is 

 light rufous, more or less infuscated above, dingy yellowish-white 

 below ; the spinous shafts to the feathers of , the head, neck, 

 wing-coverts, and breast yellowish-white and showing conspi- 

 cuously, being set off with blackish, which brings out the 

 contrasts, and the feathers are more or less barred transversely/- 

 expecially the scapulars, back, and the long upper tail-coverts. 



In a further stage the feathers are black with yellowish-white' 

 shafts on the head, back, wing-coverts and breast, to a greater 

 or lesser extent ; and to this the fully adult plumage appears 

 to succeed. 



Dr. Jerdon remarks that " the Small Indian Ooucal is a ; 

 somewhat rare bird, but spreads more or less through most parts 

 of India," and that he has had it from Central India, 



GENUS, Taccocua, Lesson. 



Bill short or of a moderate length, much compressed, the 

 culmen regularly arching ; commissure and gonys straight or 



