406 CUCULID^J. 



Eastern Timor, in the Andamans, and in Ceylon though 

 twice only according to Capt. Legge.* In South Africa it 

 has been found wintering in Natal on the East coast, t and 

 in Damara-land on the West, besides several other localities 

 nearer the equator, until to the northward it becomes as 

 common a bird as it is in Europe its season of abundance, 

 however, always alternating with our own. It has been 

 observed in the Canaries and in Madeira, but is probably not 

 a regular visitant to either. Within the limits thus indicated 

 it seems to occur more or less plentifully in all suitable 

 districts, but everywhere it appears to be of migratory habits, 

 while many of the more southern, allied forms are, in com- 

 parison if not wholly, stationary. 



The adult Cuckow has the bill bluish-black, passing into 

 yellow at the base and edges : gape, orbits and irides deep 

 yellow : upper parts generally bluish-grey ; wing-quills rather 

 darker, and barred with white on the broad inner web for 

 about three-fourths of their length ; tail-quills greyish-black, 

 tipped with white, and sparsely spotted along the shaft and 

 near the inside, forming a series of incomplete white bars. 

 A slight green gloss is often perceptible in the feathers of 

 the upper surface. Chin and neck ash-grey ; breast, belly, 

 and inner wing-coverts, white, barred with black ; vent and 

 lower tail- coverts, white, often tinged with buff, and barred, 

 but less thickly, with black : legs, toes and claws, gamboge- 

 yellow. 



The whole length is about fourteen inches ; the wing, 

 from the carpal joint to the tip, eight inches and three- 



* It must "be observed that in Asia and its islands there are several allied 

 species, some of them inhabiting India, which, on a cursory examination, may 

 be readily mistaken for Cuculus canorus. 



f The (7. canorus recorded by Desjardins (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1832, p. Ill) from 

 Madagascar and Mauritius is no doubt the nearly-allied C. rochi (op. cit. 1862, 

 p. 224), which, though greatly resembling the former, has a very different song 

 (Ibis, 1863, p. 453). Mr. Dresser regards this as specifically the same as 

 C. canorus, which seems to be an erroneous view, and MM. A. Milne-Edwards 

 and Gfrandidier (Ois. de Madagascar, i. p. 176, pi. 66) treat it as a variety of 

 the Indian C. poliocephalus ; but that has dark irides, while those of the Mada- 

 gascar bird are said on good authority to be orange, though M. Grac did ier asserts 

 the contrary. Other allied species are also found in Africa. 



